ctual blood-relationship, due to derivation from a
common parent." He speaks of "the great Family of creatures, for as
a Family we must conceive it, if the above-mentioned continuous and
connected relationship has a real foundation." Prof. Osborn alludes to
the scientific caution which led Kant, biology being what it was, to
refuse to entertain the hope "that a Newton may one day arise even to
make the production of a blade of grass comprehensible, according
to natural laws ordained by no intention." As Prof. Haeckel finely
observes, Darwin rose up as Kant's Newton. (Mr Alfred Russel Wallace
writes: "We claim for Darwin that he is the Newton of natural history,
and that, just so surely as that the discovery and 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