GERM DOCTRINE OF BONNET. 27 1 



their expanded state. The "elements" themselves, however, 

 were all supposed to preexist, and their development to be 

 "evolution" in the same old sense. 



It becomes clear, then, what Bonnet meant when he said: 



" I will not affirm that the buds which produce polyps are 

 themselves polyps in miniature concealed under the skin of 

 the parent ; but I will affirm that there are in the skin of the 

 parent certain particles which have been pre-organized in such 

 a way that a young polyp results from their development." 

 {Tableau, p. 68.) 



And, again, when he says of the germ: 



" This word will therefore denote not only an organized body 

 reduced in size, but also every species of original preformation 

 from which an organic whole can result as from its immediate 

 principle." {Paling., p. 267.) 



Paragraph 4th shows how faithfully Bonnet guarded the prin- 

 ciple of preformation, insisting that the " fiber " and the " fibril " 

 must be organized to such perfection as to exclude " change of 

 structure'' or "function.'' And how are these various kinds of 

 germs, proper and improper, supposed to develop "^ Clearly, 

 and beyond all question, by the same old process of evolution: 

 that is, by expanding without " essential change!' 



No amount of subdivision of germs could endanger this 

 theory of preformation. So long as the "elements " could not 

 be multiplied, or changed in their essential nature, Bonnet could 

 say, as he did say, " // amounts to the same thing : it is never 

 a generation, properly speaking ; it is the simple evolution of 

 what was already engendered." 



We leave Bonnet, then, at the end where we found him at 

 the beginning, with "no essential change" in his position; but 

 with his "romance" more fully evoluted; his faith in the prin- 

 ciple " mUla est epigenesis " confirmed; his loyalty to the theory 

 of evolution tested and attested; and his hope for an eternity 

 of palingenesia raised to a pitch that seemed to yield him the 

 beatitude of actual possession. There was triumphal exulta- 

 tion as well as fervid piety in the exhortation with which Bonnet 

 concluded his philosophical writings: 



'•^ Saisissez la rie ffemeZ/e." 



