anted, Erasmus Darwin and
Lamarck watered, but it was Mr. Darwin who said 'That fruit is ripe,'
and shook it into his lap" ... seems to us a quite misleading version
of the facts of the case. The second fallacy which the historical
citation is a little apt to suggest is that the filiation of ideas is
a simple problem. On the contrary, the history of an idea, like the
pedigree of an organism, is often very intricate, and the evolution of
the evolution-idea is bound up with the whole progress of the world.
Thus in order to interpret Darwin's clear formulation of the idea of
organic evolution and his convincing presentation of it, we have to do
more than go back to his immediate predecessors, such as Buffon,
Erasmus Darwin, and Lamarck; we have to inquire into the acceptance of
evolutionary conceptions in regard to other orders of facts, such as
the earth and the solar system;[14] we have to realise how the growing
success of scientific interpretation along other lines gave confidence
to those who refused to admit that there was any domain from which
science could be excluded as a trespasser; we have to take account of
the development of philosophical thought, and even of theological and
religious movements; we should also, if we are wise enough, consider
social changes. In short, we must abandon the idea that we can
understand the history of any science as such, without reference to
contemporary evolution in other departments of activity.

While there were many evolutionists before Darwin, few of them were
expert naturalists and few were known outside a small circle; what was
of much more importance was that the genetic view of Nature was
insinuating itself in regard to other than biological orders of facts,
here a little and there a little, and that the scientific spirit had
ripened since the days when Cuvier laughed Lamarck out of court. How
was it that Darwin succeeded where others had failed? Because, in the
first place, he had clear visions--"pensees de la jeunesse, executees
par l'age mur"--which a University curriculum had not made impossible,
which the _Beagle voyage_ made vivid, which an unrivalled British
doggedness made real--visions of the web of life, of the fountain of
change within the organism, of the struggle for existence and its
winnowing, and of the spreading genealogical tree. Because, in the
second place, he put so much grit into the verification of his
visions, putting them to the proof in an argume