less the passage in question be taken as a mere
slip. That attention has been called to it is plain, for the words "the
well-known doctrine of Lamarck" have been changed in later editions into
"the well-known doctrine of inherited habit as advanced by
Lamarck,"[197] but this correction, though some apparent improvement on
the original text, does little indeed in comparison with what is wanted.

Mr. Darwin has since introduced a paragraph concerning Lamarck into the
"historical sketch," already more than once referred to in these pages.
In this he summarises the theory which I am about to lay before the
reader, by saying that Lamarck "upheld the doctrine that all species,
including man, are descended from other species." If Lamarck had been
alive he would probably have preferred to see Mr. Darwin write that he
upheld "the doctrine of descent with modification as the explanation of
all differentiations of structure and instinct." Mr. Darwin continues,
that Lamarck "seems" to have been chiefly led to his conclusion on the
gradual change of species, "by the difficulty of distinguishing species
and varieties, by the almost perfect gradation of forms in certain
groups, and by the analogy of domestic productions."

Lamarck would probably have said that though he did indeed turn--as Mr.
Darwin has done, and as Buffon and Dr. Darwin had done before him--to
animals and plants under domestication, in illustration and support of
the theory of descent with modification; and that though he did also
insist, as so many other writers have done, on the arbitrary and
artificial nature of the distinction between species and varieties, he
was mainly led to agree with Buffon and Dr. Darwin by a broad survey of
the animal kingdom, with the details also of which few naturalists have
ever been better acquainted.

"Great," says Mr. Darwin, "is the power of steady
misrepresentation,"--and greatly indeed has the just fame of Lamarck
been eclipsed in consequence; "but," as Mr. Darwin finely continues,
"the history of science shows that fortunately this power does not long
endure."[198]

That Lamarck anticipated it, was prepared to face it, and even felt that
things were thus, after all, as they should be, will appear from the
shrewd and pleasant passage which is to be found near the close of his
preface:--

"So great is the power of preconceived opinion, especially when any
personal interest is enlisted on the same side as itself, that though