" In face of this onslaught Linnaeus retreated;
he tells his correspondent that "it is difficult to say anything
in this matter," and shields himself under the statement "It is
certainly a miracle that so many millions of creatures can be so
suddenly propagated," and "it shows undoubtedly the all-wise power
of the Infinite."
The great naturalist, grown old and worn with labours for science,
could no longer resist the contemporary theology; he settled into
obedience to it, and while the modification of his early orthodox
view was, as we have seen, quietly imbedded in the final edition of
his great work, he made no special effort to impress it upon the
world. To all appearance he continued to adhere to the doctrine that
all existing species had been created by the Almighty "in the
beginning," and that since "the beginning" no new species had appeared.
Yet even his great authority could not arrest the swelling tide;
more and more vast became the number of species, more and more
incomprehensible under the old theory became the newly ascertained
facts in geographical distribution, more and more it was felt that
the universe and animated beings had come into existence by some
process other than a special creation "in the beginning," and the
question was constantly pressing, "By _what_ process?"
Throughout the whole of the eighteenth century one man was at work
on natural history who might have contributed much toward an answer
to this question: this man was Buffon.
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