demonstration by Newton of the law of gravitation established order in
place of chaos and laid a sure foundation for all future study of the
starry heavens, so surely has Darwin, by his discovery of the law of
natural selection and his demonstration of the great principle of the
preservation of useful variations in the struggle for life, not only thrown
a flood of light on the process of development of the whole organic world,
but also established a firm foundation for all future study of nature"
("Darwinism", London, 1889, page 9). See also Prof. Karl Pearson's
"Grammar of Science" (2nd edition), London, 1900, page 32. See Osborn, op.
cit. Page 100.))

The scientific renaissance brought a wealth of fresh impressions and some
freedom from the tyranny of tradition, and the twofold stimulus stirred the
speculative activity of a great variety of men from old Claude Duret of
Moulins, of whose weird transformism (1609) Dr Henry de Varigny
("Experimental Evolution". London, 1892. Chap. 1. page 14.) gives us a
glimpse, to Lorenz Oken (1799-1851) whose writings are such mixtures of
sense and nonsense that some regard him as a far-seeing prophet and others
as a fatuous follower of intellectual will-o'-the-wisps. Similarly, for De
Maillet, Maupertuis, Diderot, Bonnet, and others, we must agree with
Professor Osborn that they were not actually in the main Evolution
movement. Some have been included in the roll of honour on very slender
evidence, Robinet for instance, whose evolutionism seems to us extremely
dubious. (See J. Arthur Thomson, "The Science of Life". London, 1899.
Chap. XVI. "Evolution of Evolution Theory".)

The first naturalist to give a broad and concrete expression to the
evolutionist doctrine of descent was Buffon (1707-1788), but it is
interesting to recall the fact that his contemporary Linnaeus (1707-1778),
protagonist of the counter-doctrine of the fixity of species (See Carus