252 



BIOLOGICAL LECTURES. 



Let us assume with Bonnet three revolutions.^ The " first 

 world " came directly from the hands of the Creator ; the 

 second was inaugurated, after a night of chaos, by the Mosaic 

 creation ; and the third is to be introduced with the resurrec- 

 tion. In accordance herewith, the theory supposes three 

 germs for each individual soul, incased one within another, in 

 the order in which they are to be developed, with the soul 

 lodged in the innermost germ. The external germ came to 

 development in the first or pre-Adamic world, and perished, 

 leaving the soul with the two remaining germs uninjured, but 

 incapable of another development until the second and present 

 order of things was instituted. The new conditions appearing 

 with the dawn of the present state were adapted to awaken 

 the second germ to development, but not the third. The un- 

 developed germ, the real seat of the soul, is supposed to sus- 

 tain certain close relations with the present body, by virtue of 

 which it receives from without lasting impressions on its seat 

 of memory. "These impressions constitute the physical foun- 

 dation of tJic personality of the animal. It is through them that 

 the future state will preserve more or less connection with the 

 past state, and that the animal will be able to perceive the in- 

 crease of its happiness or of its perfection." ^ 



The third and last germ, variously called " the germ of resti- 

 tution," "the little ethereal machine" of the soul, "small 

 body," "principle of reparation," "primitive corpuscle," etc., is 

 composed of indestructible elements analogous to fire, ether, 

 light, or electricity. It represents an organism of a higher 

 order than the preceding ones, with many new and more 

 exquisite senses. 



When the present body sloughs off, the " germ of restitu- 

 tion " is set free, but remains torpid until, at the resurrection, 

 by the sudden inflow of matter analogous to itself, its " evolu- 

 tion " will be achieved "in the twinkling of an eye." This 

 final development is called '' 2, grand vietaniorphosis.'' 



Bonnet's "natural evolution" is, in fact, only a succession 

 of "metamorphoses." The germ emerges to each new state 

 as a complete organism, after deliverance from the envelope of 



1 Palingenesie, p. 187. ^ Loc. cit., p. 124. 



