^68 Guvier as a Naturalist. 



same powers ; their form alone differs. It is then of the form 

 of organized beings, and not of their general functions, not of the 

 general laws by which they grow, are nourished, propagated, 

 feel, and, when animated, desire, that we here speak ; but of 

 the form, which, we repeat, in accordance with the end, with the 

 part each being has to fulfil, cannot be every where the same, be- 

 cause this end and these functions vary. Moreover, to vary the 

 form of beings, to arrive at the conditions of their existence, Na^ 

 ture has not only modified the organs with which she has en- 

 dowed them, but she has given more to some, and granted fewer 

 to others ; she has displayed all the combinations of organs, 

 which do not present physiological incompatibilities, all the com- 

 binations which are not contradictory ; as, to vary the mode of 

 action of physical forces, she has conferred many satellites on 

 some planets, or provided Saturn with a ring. We may observe 

 here, in passing, that if we remark so many varieties on the 

 eleven planets of our system, what would it be could we carry 

 our observations so far into the limits of space, as to discern 

 those of all the other solar systems ? Perhaps we might there 

 find differences almost as remarkable, as among animated be- 

 ings. We now know that these suns themselves, are not al- 

 ways single ; that some of them are double, others triple, and 

 consequently, there is not unity even there, where, without the 

 telescope, the most daring imagination would not have supposed 

 the contrary. Who can calculate the effect which two or three 

 suns revolving round each other must produce on the planetary 

 systems which belong to them ? and yet, all these bodies, how- 

 ever varied they may be, obey the laws of Kepler and Newton, 

 as all organized beings, however different may be their forms 

 and functions, are* obedient to physiological laws. We even be- 

 lieve, that it would not be too much to imagine, that these phy- 

 siological laws extend beyond our planet : but it would be too 

 much to suppose that the forms themselves which exist upon 

 our globe, have representatives upon all the others. 



Those who think that all the laws of nature are simple, are 

 led to believe in the unity of composition, because they see 

 simplicity in this law. It would not, however, be difficult to 

 demonstrate, that it would be more simple to have many plans, 

 than to torture any single one, as it would be necessary to do, 



