In Darwin's Shadow: The Life and Science of Alfred Russel Wallace ...

102 / In Darwin’s Shadow
one thing differs so little from some other, that if we hit upon the right method
we shall scarcely find any limits between them. Does not everyone perceive
that there is a vast difference between a stone and a monkey? But if all the
intermediate beings were set to view in order, it would be difficult to find the
limits between them.” 51
Because of his theological preferences and his insistence on the static nature
of species, Linnaeus is typically seen as an archfoe of evolutionism. Yet like
Ray before him, his pioneering work in classification and the definition of
species made the origin of species a legitimate scientific problem to be solved.
“We must pursue the great chain of nature till we arrive at its origin,” he
wrote in the Sexes of Plants. “We should begin to contemplate her operations
in the human frame and from thence continue our researches through the
various tribes of quadrupeds, birds, reptiles, fishes, insects, and worms, till
we arrive at the vegetable creation.” 52 With so many thousands of species
never before known, Linnaeus hinted at the possibility that maybe not all
species now alive were created in the beginning. Hybridization was one possible
way of accounting for this variability, but his musings on origins were
beyond what his natural theology would allow, and he relinquished the problem
to later thinkers, such as Buffon.
Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon (1707–1778), better known simply
as Buffon, elevated natural history to a serious science through his 1779
volume Epoques de la Nature, itself part of his multivolume series Histoire
Naturelle (1749–1785). Any history of evolutionary thought that ends with
Darwin and Wallace must include these two themes: (1) the discovery of
geological, or “deep” time; and (2) a definition of species that allows for
change. Buffon’s scientific calculation of the age of the earth (based on Newton’s
theory of planetary formation), and his objective definition of a species
(following Ray’s lead in arguing for a more “natural” definition based on
reproductive capability) moved the study of evolutionary biology under the
umbrella of the day’s most advanced scientific analysis. Like Linnaeus before
him, Buffon was an enthusiastic biophiliac whose unsullied love of the natural
world took him away from his preselected profession of the law and into that
of naturalist. Born into a wealthy family in Burgundy, Buffon was schooled
in law at the University of Dijon. Then, at the University of Angers, he studied
mathematics, botany, and medicine, rounding out his education with a membership
in the French Academy, where he completed his development by
publishing works on probability theory, forestry, chemistry, and biology. Originally
born Georges-Louis Leclerc, his inheritance of the village of Buffon
on his mother’s death made him financially secure and provided him a life of
leisure—which in Buffon’s case was directed to the full-time study of the
natural world. 53