arwin simply entered into
the labours of his predecessors, whereas, as a matter of fact, he knew
very little about them till after he had been for years at work. To
write, as Samuel Butler did, "Buffon planted, Erasmus Darwin and Lamarck
watered, but it was Mr Darwin who said 'That fruit is ripe,' and shook
it into his lap"... seems to us a quite misleading version of the facts
of the case. The second fallacy which the historical citation is
a little apt to suggest is that the filiation of ideas is a simple
problem. On the contrary, the history of an idea, like the pedigree
of an organism, is often very intricate, and the evolution of the
evolution-idea is bound up with the whole progress of the world. Thus
in order to interpret Darwin's clear formulation of the idea of organic
evolution and his convincing presentation of it, we have to do more than
go back to his immediate predecessors, such as Buffon, Erasmus Darwin,
and Lamarck; we have to inquire into the acceptance of evolutionary
conceptions in regard to other orders of facts, such as the earth and
the solar system (See Chapter IX. "The Genetic View of Nature" in J.T.
Merz's "History of European Thought in the Nineteenth Century", Vol. 2,
Edinburgh and London, 1903.); we have to realise how the growing success
of scientific interpretation along other lines gave confidence to those
who refused to admit that there was any domain from which science could
be excluded as a trespasser; we have to take account of the development
of philosophical thought, and even of theological and religious
movements; we should also, if we are wise enough, consider social
changes. In short, we must abandon the idea that we can understand
the history of any science as such, without reference to contemporary
evolution in other departments of activity.

While there were many evolutionists before Darwin, few of them were
expert naturalists and few were known outside a small circle; what
was of much more importance was that the genetic view of nature was
insinuating itself in regard to other than biological orders of facts,
here a little and there a little, and that the scientific spirit had
ripened since the days when Cuvier laughed Lamarck out of court. How was
it that Darwin succeeded where others had failed? Because, in the first
place, he had clear visions--"pensees de la jeunesse, executees par
l'age mur"--which a University curriculum had not made impossible, which
the "Beagle" voyage