hat
"the sacred deposit of truth committed to the Church" was, that "in the
beginning God made the heavens and the earth" and that "all things were
made at the beginning of the world." For his simple statement of truths
in natural science which are to-day truisms, he was, as we have seen,
dragged forth by the theological faculty, forced to recant publicly, and
to print his recantation. In this he announced, "I abandon everything in
my book respecting the formation of the earth, and generally all which
may be contrary to the narrative of Moses."(21)

(21) For Descartes and his relation to the Copernican theory, see
Saisset, Descartes et ses Precurseurs; also Fouillee, Descartes, Paris,
1893, chaps. ii and iii; also other authorities cited in my chapter
on Astronomy; for his relation to the theory of evolution, see the
Principes de Philosophie, 3eme partie, S 45. For de Maillet, see
Quatrefages, Darwin et ses Precurseurs francais, chap i, citing
D'Archiac, Paleontologie, Stratigraphie, vol. i; also, Perrier, La
Philosophie zoologique avant Darwin, chap. vi; also the admirable
article Evolution, by Huxley, in Ency. Brit. The title of De Maillet's
book is Telliamed, ou Entretiens d'un Philosophe indien avec un
Missionaire francais sur la Diminution de la Mer, 1748, 1756. For
Buffon, see the authorities previously given, also the chapter on
Geology in this work. For the resistance of both Catholic and Protestant
authorities to the Linnaean system and ideas, see Alberg, Life of
Linnaeus, London, 1888, pp. 143-147, and 237. As to the creation
medallions at the Cathedral of Upsala, it is a somewhat curious
coincidence that the present writer came upon them while visiting that
edifice during the preparation of this chapter.

But all this triumph of the Chaldeo-Babylonian creation legends which
the Church had inherited availed but little.

For about the end of the eighteenth century fruitful suggestions and
even clear presentations of this or that part of a large evolutionary
doctrine came thick and fast, and from the most divergent quarters.
Especially remarkable were those which came from Erasmus Darwin in
England, from Maupertuis in France, from Oken in Switzerland, and from
Herder, and, most brilliantly of all, from Goethe in Germany.

Two men among these thinkers must be especially mentioned--Treviranus in
Germany and Lamarck in France; each independently of the other drew the
world more completely than ever bef