The Project Gutenberg EBook of Evolution, Old & New, by Samuel Butler

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Title: Evolution, Old & New
Or, the Theories of Buffon, Dr. Erasmus Darwin and Lamarck,
as compared with that of Charles Darwin

Author: Samuel Butler

Release Date: November 9, 2007 [EBook #23427]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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Evolution, Old & New

"The want of a practical acquaintance with Natural History leads the
author to take an erroneous view of the bearing of his own theories
on those of Mr. Darwin.--_Review of 'Life and Habit,' by Mr. A. R.
Wallace, in 'Nature,' March 27, 1879._

"Neither lastly would our observer be driven out of his conclusion,
or from his confidence in its truth, by being told that he knows
nothing at all about the matter. He knows enough for his argument;
he knows the utility of the end; he knows the subserviency and
adaptation of the means to the end. These points being known, his
ignorance concerning other points, his doubts concerning other
points, affect not the certainty of his reasoning. The consciousness
of knowing little need not beget a distrust of that which he does
know."

Paley's '_Natural Theology_,' chap. i.

Evolution, Old & New

Or the Theories of Buffon, Dr. Erasmus Darwin and Lamarck,
as compared with that of Charles Darwin

_by_

Samuel Butler

New York
E. P. Dutton & Company
681 Fifth Avenue

_Made and printed in Great Britain_

NOTE

The demand for a new edition of "Evolution, Old and New," gives me
an opportunity of publishing Butler's latest revision of his work.
The second edition of "Evolution, Old and New," which was published
in 1882 and re-issued with a new title-page in 1890, was merely a
re-issue of the first edition with a new preface, an appendix, and
an index. At a later date, though I cannot say precisely when,
Butler revised the text of the book in view of a