SPINOZA. 



97 



Leibnitz' main teachings, as in part a revival 

 of Aristotle's, certainly had an entirely different 

 trend from those of Bacon and Descartes. He 

 stimulated the speculations of Diderot, Maupertuis, 

 Bonnet, Robinet, and others, of the speculative 

 writers ; in short, he founded a 'school ' with his Con- 

 tinuity doctrines. On the other hand, like Bacon, 

 he appears, in such passages as those quoted above, 

 to have especially directed research to those natural 

 gradations between species which have become the 

 pillars of Evolution. 



Spinoza (i 632-1 677) took a similar but firmer 

 ground in regard to natural causation : " The 

 natural laws and principles by which all things are 

 made and some forms are changed into others, 

 are everywhere and through all time the same." 

 To Pascal (162 3-1 662) was attributed by Geoffrey 

 St. Hilaire a thoroughly evolutionistic view as to 

 the origin of animals and plants ; yet diligent search 

 by other authors has failed to locate this in any 

 of his writings. In the close of his treatise upon 

 Optics, Newton (1642-1727) pointed out the uni- 

 formity of structure which pervades all animal 

 types. Hume (1711-1776) also concluded that the 

 world mieht have been orenerated rather than created 

 by the activity of its own inherent principles, and 

 Leslie Stephens points out that he also considered 

 the ' survival of the fittest ' principle. 



In those days of few printed books and concen- 

 trated thoucrht, such scattered suggestions as these 



H 



