nfined to Goethe and Darwin.
Even earlier the idea had come more or less vaguely to another great
dreamer--and worker--of Germany, Immanuel Kant, and to several great
Frenchmen, including De Maillet, Maupertuis, Robinet, and the famous
naturalist Buffon--a man who had the imagination of a poet, though his
message was couched in most artistic prose. Not long after the middle of
the eighteenth century Buffon had put forward the idea of transmutation
of species, and he reiterated it from time to time from then on till
his death in 1788. But the time was not yet ripe for the idea of
transmutation of species to burst its bonds.

And yet this idea, in a modified or undeveloped form, had taken strange
hold upon the generation that was upon the scene at the close of the
eighteenth century. Vast numbers of hitherto unknown species of animals
had been recently discovered in previously unexplored regions of the
globe, and the wise men were sorely puzzled to account for the disposal
of all of these at the time of the deluge. It simplified matters greatly
to suppose that many existing species had been developed since the
episode of the ark by modification of the original pairs. The remoter
bearings of such a theory were overlooked for the time, and the idea
that American animals and birds, for example, were modified descendants
of Old-World forms--the jaguar of the leopard, the puma of the lion, and
so on--became a current belief with that class of humanity who accept
almost any statement as true that harmonizes with their prejudices
without realizing its implications.

Thus it is recorded with eclat that the discovery of the close proximity
of America at the northwest with Asia removes all difficulties as to the
origin of the Occidental faunas and floras, since Oriental species
might easily have found their way to America on the ice, and have been
modified as we find them by "the well-known influence of climate." And
the persons who gave expression to this idea never dreamed of its
real significance. In truth, here was the doctrine of evolution in a
nutshell, and, because its ultimate bearings were not clear, it seemed
the most natural of doctrines. But most of the persons who advanced it
would have turned from it aghast could they have realized its import.
As it was, however, only here and there a man like Buffon reasoned
far enough to inquire what might be the limits of such assumed
transmutation; and only here and there a Darwi