GENERAL PRINCIPLES 55 



But nature has given him numerous passions which unfortunately 

 develop with his inteUigence, and thus set up a great obstacle to the 

 extreme multiphcation of individuals of his species. 



It seems, in fact, that man is himself responsible for continually 

 keeping down the numbers of his kind ; for I have no hesitation in 

 saying that the earth will never be covered by the population that 

 it might support ; several of its habitable regions will always be 

 sparsely populated in turns, although the period of these fluctuations 

 are, so far as we are concerned, immeasurable. 



By these wise precautions, everything is thus preserved in the 

 estabhshed order ; the continual changes and renewals which are 

 observed in that order are kept within limits that they cannot pass ; 

 all the races of living bodies continue to exist in spite of their variations ; 

 none of the progress made towards perfection of organisation is lost ; 

 what appears to be disorder, confusion, anomaly, incessantly passes 

 again into the general order, and even contributes to it ; everywhere 

 and always the will of the Subhme Author of nature and of everything 

 that exists is invariably carried out. 



Before devoting ourselves to showing the degradation and simphfica- 

 tion existing in the organisation of animals, when we proceed according 

 to custom from the most complex to the simplest, let us examine 

 their true arrangement and classification, as well as the principles 

 employed for this purpose. It will then be easier for us to recognise 

 the proofs of the degradation in question. 



