It is with the idea of presenting, in a condensed form, the essentials of this “evolution of evolution” that I have prepared this book. It is neither detailed nor technical; it does not assume to be a complete history of the subject under consideration. But it does give a convenient, readable account of the most important stages in that history, and at the same time a slight glimpse of the major characters who made it possible. This latter, unfortunately, is difficult for two reasons. The space of this booklet is limited, and only brief sketches can be given, where they can be given at all. But more important than that is the lack of material. No scientist has been a Shakespeare, to be written about by Goethe and Frank Harris, nor yet a Cromwell, to receive the attention of Carlyle. And yet the personality and fortunes of a scientist are just as important in judging his place in the world as are those of a poet or statesman. Without knowing that Lamarck was poor and blind we cannot properly view his efforts; without realizing that Cuvier was spoiled, wealthy, and of a “ruling class,” we cannot understand his bitter contempt for an honest, capable worker who was founding one of the greatest conceptions of all human thought. And so, while we are considering the ideas that go to make up this evolution, let us remember that those ideas were worked out by _men_, not by erratic, thinking machines which popular magazines proclaim to the world as representations of its scientists. C. L. F. CHAPTER I. EVOLUTION AMONG THE GREEKS. The earliest known books on natural history, and particularly on zoology, the science of animals, were those written by the ancient Greeks. We are certain that still more ancient volumes once existed, for the Greek writers commonly referred to “the ancients,” very much as authors of today refer to the Greeks. But who these ancients were, where they lived, and what they wrote, we have no means of knowing; for all practical purposes the study of animal life may be considered to have originated in Greece during the seventh century before the Christian era.