294 LUCK, OR CUNNING ? 



iiig what is obviously a risu7n4 of the evolutionary 

 theories of his time, makes no mention of Lamarck, 

 Erasmus Darwin, or Buffon. I have not the original 

 edition of the " Vestiges of Creation " before me, but 

 feel sure I am justified in saying that it claimed to be 

 a more or less Minerva-like work, that sprang full 

 armed from the brain of Mr. Chambers himself. This 

 at least is how it was received by the public ; and, 

 however violent the opposition it met with, I cannot 

 find that its author was blamed for not having made 

 adequate mention of Lamarck. "When Mr. Spencer 

 wrote his first essay on evolution in the " Leader " 

 (March 20, 1852) he did indeed begin his argument, 

 " Those who cavalierly reject the doctrine of Lamarck," 

 &c., so that his essay purports to be written in sup- 

 port of Lamarck ; but when he republished his article 

 in 1858, the reference to Lamarck was cut out. 



I make no doubt that it was the bad example set 

 him by the writers named in the preceding paragraph 

 which betrayed Mr. Darwin into doing as they did, 

 but being more conscientious than they, he could not 

 bring himself to do it without having satisfied himself 

 that he had got hold of a more or less distinctive 

 feature, and this, of course, made matters worse. The 

 distinctive feature was not due to any deep-laid plan 

 for pitchforking mind out of the universe, or as part 

 of a scheme of materialistic philosophy, though it has 

 since been made to play an important part in the 

 attempt to further this ; Mr. Darwin was perfectly 

 innocent of any intention of getting rid of mind, and 

 did not, probably, care the toss of sixpence whether 



