88 THEOLOGIANS AND NATURAL PHILOSOPHERS. 



Evolution of life, and it is remarkable that they 

 clearly perceived from the outset that the point 

 to which observation should be directed was not 

 the past but the present mutability of species, and 

 further, that this mutability was simply the varia- 

 tion of individuals on an extended scale. Thus 

 Variation w^as brought into prominence as the 

 point to which observation should be directed. 



This is one of the contributions of the Philos- 

 ophers to the history of the Evolution theory. ItJ 

 seems to have sprung up afresh out of the advances 

 in Biology of the previous century, for it was some- 

 thino^ which is not found amono^ the Greeks. It 

 was Bacon who pointed out the evidence for Vari- 

 ation in animals and plants, and the bearing of this 

 upon the production of new species and upon the 

 gradations of life. Leibnitz took a second step 

 in indicating that the Evolution of life was a 

 necessary part of a system of cosmic philosophy,! 

 and although wholly at sea in his theory of Evo-J 

 lution, he added to the evidence for it by giving 

 examples of gradations of character between living 

 and extinct forms, as proofs of the universal grada- 

 tion or connection between species. Thus, among 

 these philosophers we find pointed out the gra- 

 dations of type, the facts of variation, and the 

 bearing of these facts upon the production of new 

 species, also the analogy between artificial selection 

 practised by man in producing new forms and the 

 production of new forms in Nature. 



