4 
[January, 
The History of Evolutionism . 
continuation, or, as he expresses it, as an ‘ elongation of 
its parents,” and as retaining in consequence the habits of 
the latter. He believed that the human race was at one 
time four-footed, and that hermaphroditism was the general 
condition even of the higher animals. 
We might, indeed, fill much more space than stands at 
our disposal in showing to what an extent Biasmus Darwin 
anticipated the most recent biological researches and the 
most advanced speculations of our own day. 
But we have now to meet the two main questions Why 
did he so completely fail to command the assent of the 
public ? and wherein does his system differ from that of his 
illustrious grandson ? That he did not carry conviction to 
the minds of even a minority of thinkers is undeniable. 
Even until quite recently the idea of a transformation of 
species, or of their origin in any other mode than that em- 
bodied in Milton’s poetical gloss on the Mosaic cosmogony, 
was, in England at least, branded as philosophically false 
and’ theologically impious, and the very name of Darwin 
had become a bye-word and a reproach. 
This failure was due to the combined action of a number 
of circumstances. Erasmus Darwin was too. far in advance 
of his own contemporaries to meet with a fair appreciation. 
As Dr Krause remarks “ It is only now, after the lapse 
of a hundred years, that, by the labours of one. of his 
descendants, we are in a position to estimate at its true 
value the wonderful perceptivity, amounting almost to 
divination, that he displayed in the domain of Biology.” 
Again very much of the evidence that was needed to 
convince those capable of judging of the truth of Evolution 
could not be said to exist. The disciplines of animal and 
vegetable geography, which have supplied such a mass of 
proof in favour of “ Transformism,” had not been elaborated. 
Palseontologv was also a thing of the future, and no inves- 
tigator could' point to the gradual mutation, e.g., of Castanea 
atava into Castanea vesca, or demonstrate the successive 
stages through which the horse has passed in reaching his 
present structure. . . 
Embryology, also, was not in a position to speak as she 
has since spoken. 4he collateral evidence in favoui of 
development as the general law of Creation, now furnished 
bv Astronomy in the shape of the nebular theory, was also 
wanting What wonder, then, that the system of the elder 
Darwin, even had it been much more complete than was 
actually the case, should be rejected ? 
The time, too, was especially unfavourable, I he tele- 
