, modified by the
conditions of their existence, but are only induced by these conditions
to set about modifying themselves_."[62] But it is very hard to say how
much Buffon saw and how much he did not see. He may be trusted to have
seen that if he once allowed the thin end of this wedge into his system,
he could no more assign limits to the effect which living forms might
produce upon their own organisms by effort and ingenuity in the course
of long time, than he could set limits to what he had called the power
of Nature if he was once to admit that an ass and a horse might, through
that power, have been descended from a common ancestor. Nevertheless, he
shows no unwillingness or recalcitrancy about letting the wedge enter,
for he speaks of domestication as inducing modifications "sufficiently
profound to become constant and hereditary in successive generations ...
_by its action on bodily habits it influences also their natures,
instincts, and most inward qualities_."[63]

This is a very thick thin end to have been allowed to slip in unawares;
but it is astonishing how little Buffon can see when he likes. I hardly
doubt but he would have been well enough pleased to have let the wedge
enter still farther, but this fluctuating writer had assigned himself
his limits some years before, and meant adhering to them. Again, in this
very chapter on Degeneration, to which M. Geoffroy has referred, there
are passages on the callosities on a camel's knees, on the llama, and on
the haunches of pouched monkeys which might have been written by Dr.
Darwin himself.[64] They will appear more fully presently. Buffon now
probably felt that he had said enough, and that others might be trusted
to carry the principle farther when the time was riper for its
enforcement.

FOOTNOTES:

[51] 'Origin of Species,' p. xiii. ed. 1876.

[52] 'Hist. Nat. Gen.,' tom. ii. p. 405, 1859.

[53] 'Origin of Species,' p. xiv. 1876.

[54] 'Hist. Nat. Gen.,' tom. ii. p. 383.

[55] Tom. iv.

[56] 'Hist. Nat. Gen.,' tom. ii. p. 391, 1859.

[57] Tom. v. p. 59, 1755.

[58] Tom. v. p. 60.

[59] Tom. vi. p. 58, 1756.

[60] Tom. vi. pp. 59-60, 1756.

[61] Tom. i. p. 13, 1749.

[62] 'Hist. Nat. Gen.,' tom. ii. p. 411, 1859.

[63] Tom. xi. p. 290, 1764 (misprinted on title-page 1754).

[64] See tom. xiv. p. 326, 1766; and p. 162 of this volume.

CHAPTER XI.

BUFFON--FULLER QUOTATIONS.

Let us now proceed to those fuller quotations which