About this time we find in the writings of Buffon, the French naturalist, many indications of an idea approaching our modern conceptions of evolution. He felt sure the pig could not have been a special creation, because he had four toes, two of which, with all their bones and their hoofs, are quite useless to him. We now call these toes "vestigial," and know the pig's ancestors used them, walking on four toes and not on two, as at present. Buffon believed there were degenerations as well as developments, and considered the ape a degenerate man. He conceived these changes to be brought about by what he called the favors and disfavors of nature. He varied much in his opinions in various parts of his career and occasionally is smitten either with conscience or with fear of authority. Then he goes back and says it is all a mistake and each animal is the product of a special act on the part of the Creator. A little later, in England, Erasmus Darwin, the grandfather of Charles Darwin, who was subsequently to establish the evolution theory, wrote a long and elaborate poem called the "Temple of Nature." In this we find a remarkable prevision of many of the principles which were afterward to be warmly advocated and disputed during the growth of the idea of evolution. "Hence without parents by spontaneous growth, Rise the first specks of animated life. * * * * * * * Thus as successive generations bloom New powers acquire and larger limbs assume." Erasmus Darwin recognized the struggle for existence, but he saw in it only a check against overcrowding, and not an active factor in the development as his grandson Charles came to see it. It is possible the elder Darwin's views might have been taken more seriously had he not clothed them with the form of verse. In these days it seems quite ludicrous to think of giving to the world a new scientific concept or a new phase of philosophy in verse.