CHAPTER II.. The Relation of Louis Agassiz to the Theory of Evolution.

THE RELATION OF LOUIS AGASSIZ TO THE THEORY OF EVOLUTION.

General misunderstanding on this subject--Necessary to give sketch of history of the idea--Greeks, Lucretius, Swedenborg, and Kant--First scientific presentation by Lamarck--General character of Lamarck’s views--Failed, and rightly so--Next, Chambers’s “Vestiges of Creation”--Its general character-- Failed, and rightly so--Some think this unfortunate--Why not so--An obstacle must be removed and a basis laid 32

The obstacle removed--Old views in regard to forces-- Correlation of forces established--But vital force considered exception--Therefore living forms also supposed exception to mode of origin of other forms--Then vital forces also correlated--Therefore, a priori probable that living forms also correlated with other forms as to mode of origin--Thus obstacle removed 35

The basis laid--Agassiz laid inductive basis of evolution, although he refused to build--He established the laws of evolution and perfected the method of comparison--Importance of method discussed--The method of notation--The method of experiment--The difficulty of applying these to life phenomena--Method of comparison shown--(1) In Taxonomic series--(2) In Ontogenic series--(3) In Phylogenic series --Cuvier the great worker by comparison in the Taxonomic series--Agassiz in the Ontogenic and Phylogenic--Agassiz also established the three laws of evolution given in previous chapter--Thus he laid foundation--Why he did not build-- Supposed identity of evolution and materialism--The obstacle being removed and the basis laid, when evolution again brought forward it was universally accepted, because the world was prepared--Place of Agassiz and Darwin compared--Formal science vs. physical science--Illustrated by relation of Kepler to Newton--Relation of Agassiz to time cosmos similar to that of Kepler to space cosmos--So Darwin to Newton-- Some reflections on the above--Gravitation is the law of space cosmos--Evolution of time cosmos--Of the divine spheral music gravitation is the chordal harmony and evolution the melody 37