The Theories of Darwin and Their Relation to Philosophy, Religion, and Morality | Page 9

attained, and the extension
of the process of transmutation into extraordinarily long periods of time

with very slight changes, are also, in his view, the probable causes of
the variation and development of the species. He only lacks the idea of
a natural selection in the struggle for existence, and the comparison of
the processes in nature with the methodical selection of man in the
breeding of domestic animals and plants, to identify his views with
those of Darwin.
At first, Lamarck met only with violent opposition; but after a little
while his views ceased to attract attention. The time had not yet come
to make such an attempt at observing nature from the standpoint of
evolution. The sciences which favor such a mode of observation, and
even demand it--such as comparative anatomy and physiology and the
history of the development of the different plants and animals--were
only in their infancy, or were--like palæontology and the comparative
geography of plants and animals--not yet in existence. The influence of
Linnæus, whose views diametrically opposed those of Lamarck,
predominated over all the investigations of natural science; Buffon,
who favored the ideas of Lamarck, and loved to trace a unity in natural
phenomena, was too instable in his investigations and views to arrive at
a comprehensive principle; and even the eminent naturalist, Cuvier, of
Montpellier, showed in his observation of nature a predilection for
analysis rather than synthesis, and although his comprehensive mind
inclined to generalize and explain, he placed himself in decided
opposition to a theory which was founded only on a few decisive facts.
This last mentioned deficiency seems to have been {32} the main cause
of Lamarck's views soon being lost sight of. They nowhere found a
support in facts; the force of habit played in them an exaggerated and
unnatural rôle; the different illustrations of them--such as the long neck
of the giraffe explained by the permanent and inherited habit of
browsing on the branches of high trees, or the web on the toes of frogs,
swimming-birds, etc., explained by the habit of swimming--were talked
about and laughed at more as curiosities than as worthy of serious
consideration.
Only twice after this did the question put by Lamarck attract wider
attention from the learned world. The first time was when, in 1830, the

bitter contest arose at the Academy of Paris, between Cuvier and
Etienne Geoffrey St. Hilaire, the father of Isidor G. St. Hilaire.
Geoffrey St. Hilaire had views similar to Lamarck's, but reached them
from quite a different standpoint--from the observation of the analogy
and homology of the organs; and accounted for the variation of species,
not by the use or disuse of the organs, but on the one hand by the
common original type of the organs, and on the other by the varied
influence of the surroundings--the monde ambiant. Lamarck himself
seems not to have been mentioned in this contest. The controversy
turned much more on the question whether in observing nature we can
proceed by synthesis and find in the analogies of the organisms the
principles for explaining the real connection between the different
organic forms, or whether the analytical process is the only correct one,
and the synthetical should be discarded. The solution of it will probably
be, that the one process must be supplemented by the {33} other, as
Goethe has already shown in his account of this controversy; but at that
time it was decided in favor of the analytical principle, and the question
was for the time dropped. It came up for a second time, but created
little excitement, in 1844, when an anonymous work, "Vestiges of the
Natural History of Creation," directed the attention and the interest of
scientists again to Lamarck and his doctrine. But this interest also soon
came to an end, until through Darwin's first publication the
half-forgotten man again suddenly attained great honor.
Those who wish to form a closer acquaintance with the different
advocates of the evolution theory before Darwin's appearance, will find
them carefully arranged in the historical sketch which Darwin gives in
the introduction to his work on "The Origin of Species"; and the most
important extracts of Lamarck's "Philosophie Zoologique" are to be
found in Oscar Schmidt's "Descent and Darwinism."[1]
§ 2. Indirect Preparations.
While thus the ideas of Lamarck gradually fell into partial oblivion, yet
contemporaneous with and following them arose several other series of
thoughts, views, and investigations, which, although they only
indirectly prepared for the revival of the evolution theory, yet exercised

a deeper and more lasting influence on the minds of scientists. We refer
to the ideas in regard to natural phenomena held during the first
decades of our century; further, to the principles of comparative
anatomy which, up to the present time, partly dependent {34} and
partly independent of