Butler, S. Evolution, old and new (1882)

Butler, S. Evolution, old and new: or, The theories of Buffon, Dr. Erasmus Darwin, and Lamarck, as compared with that of Mr. Charles Darwin / S. Butler. — 2nd ed. — London : David Bogue, 1882. — 438 p.

My object in the present volume has been to present the theories of the older evolutionists — Buffon, Dr. Erasmus Darwin, and Lamarck — in a more accessible form, and to show that their conception of evolution, which rested upon the idea of the intelligence and purposiveness of living organisms, is more satisfactory than the theory of 'natural selection' proposed by Mr. Charles Darwin, which tends to reduce the process of evolution to a series of blind, mechanical accidents.