TION
OF SPECIES.

Enough, perhaps, has been already said to disabuse the reader's mind of
the common misconception of Buffon, namely, that he was more or less of
an elegant trifler with science, who cared rather about the language in
which his ideas were clothed than about the ideas themselves, and that
he did not hold the same opinions for long together; but the accusation
of instability has been made in such high quarters that it is necessary
to refute it still more completely.

Mr. Darwin, for example, in his "Historical Sketch of the Recent
Progress of Opinion on the Origin of Species" prefixed to all the later
editions of his own 'Origin of Species,' says of Buffon that he "was the
first author who, in modern times, has treated" the origin of species
"in a scientific spirit. But," he continues, "as his opinions fluctuated
greatly at different periods, and as he does not enter on the causes or
means of the transformation of species, I need not here enter on
details."[51]

Mr. Darwin seems to have followed the one half of Isidore Geoffroy St.
Hilaire's "full account of Buffon's conclusions" upon the subject of
descent with modification,[52] to which he refers with approval on the
second page of his historical sketch.[53]

Turning, then, to Isidore Geoffroy's work, I find that in like manner he
too has been following the one half of what Buffon actually said. But
even so, he awards Buffon very high praise.

"Buffon," he writes, "is to the doctrine of the mutability of species
what Linnaeus is to that of its fixity. It is only since the appearance
of Buffon's 'Natural History,' and in consequence thereof, that the
mutability of species has taken rank among scientific questions."[54]

. . . . . .

"Buffon, who comes next in chronological order after Bacon, follows him
in no other respect than that of time. He is entirely original in
arriving at the doctrine of the variability of organic types, and in
enouncing it after long hesitation, during which one can watch the
labour of a great intelligence freeing itself little by little from the
yoke of orthodoxy.

"But from this source come difficulties in the interpretation of
Buffon's work which have misled many writers. Buffon expresses
absolutely different opinions in different parts of his natural
history--so much so that partisans and opponents of the doctrine of the
fixity of species have alike believed and still believe themselves at
liberty to claim B