46 
Transactions Texas Academy of Science. — 1907. 
Knight’s volume contains an interesting account of the life and per- 
sonality of this eighteenth-century lawyer-philosopher, an estimate of 
his work, and a portion of his correspondence — that art being much 
cultivated by him and his friends. Monboddo preached the “ancient 
philosophy” of Plato and Aristotle, extending their theories, adding 
new ones, and supporting them by such evidence as he could procure 
from historians’ and travelers’ tales-— and he was a remarkably gullible 
man in this respect, his favorite explanation for his credulity being 
that he does not see why he should suspect an author of dying just to 
make people stare — and his conclusions appear surprisingly modern to 
anyone whose acquaintance with theories of evolution is limited to more 
recent writers. 
Ivnight refers to these conclusions ; mentions Monboddo’s “prevision 
of future theories as to the origin of man, and his ascent or descent 
from lower types”; his opinion “that man was originally an animal, 
without speech, reason, or affection; * * * and that all the higher 
attainments of the human race * * * were the mere results of long 
experience, continuous struggle, and artifice”; and his doctrine of the 
origin of language, the basis for which is the ancient metaphysical solu- 
tion of the origin of ideas. But the root-principle of his teaching, accord- 
ing to Knight’s estimate, was the ascent and progress seen in nature, 
from the inorganic through the organic up to man, a progress which the 
human species has passed through. 
These comments seem promising, and at Prof. Montgomery’s sug- 
gestion I have examined Monboddo’s reference to evolution more thor- 
oughly than Knight did, as contained in the former’s Antient Meta- 
physics^ The results, which follow, may prove much less interesting 
than the task itself, because it is quite impossible to reproduce Mon- 
boddo’s charm without the actual presence of the big leather-bound 
books; they are of value chiefly as a small addition in the search for 
pre-Darwinian evolutionists. A quotation from the third volume, which 
appeared in 1784, indicates the trend of Monboddo’s thoughts (p. 5, 
1 - 11 ): 
“Man is undoubtedly at the top of the scale of Being here on earth, 
which we may observe rises by gradual ascent, according to the different 
degrees of excellency of the Beings that compose it. Those of the lowest 
kind are the mere elements of Fire, Air, Earth, and Water. Kext to 
these is the Mineral, of nature more various and more excellent, but 
without that distinction of parts of different kinds, and serving different 
purposes, which we call Organization. By the addition of this the 
3 Antient Metaphysics, or, The Science of Universal s, 40, Vol. I, Edinburgh, 
1779; II, London, 1782; III, London, 1784; IV, Edinburgh, 1795; V, Edinburgh, 
1797; VI, Edinburgh, 1799. This was published anonymously. 
