THE CARP AND THE STICKLEBACK 



reconstructs the web as a whole, summoning all its 

 means of knowledge for the purpose. 



Living Nature in its totality is made up of series of 

 generations which have succeeded and replaced one 

 another in time since the beginning of the ages, distrib- 

 uting their individuals all over the globe in space. 

 The globe and space are small ; time, on the other hand, 

 is immeasurable, accumulating centuries by millions 

 from the beginning, piling up passing generations in 

 still more considerable quantities, allowing individuals 

 to multiply abundantly as they succeed one another. 

 " Nature is Time," Lacepede writes, inspired by Buffon 

 his friend and master. A striking formula, which fairly 

 expresses the full reality. 



Life, thus evoked, takes on a greater value, much 

 greater than that commonly accorded it. It is no longer 

 simply a limited animation, which stops and is done 

 after having supported one individual during his brief 

 existence. It is more, and better, than a collection of 

 forces opposing themselves to death. It is much more, 

 for it goes beyond death and the disappearance of the 

 individual. The animation it bestows extends to entire 

 lineages; it does not cease, it does not fail. For it, 

 death simply does not exist; individuals fall out, but it 

 continues. Those to whom it attaches itself it raises 

 one after the other, then lets fall again, but, as it does so, 

 it unceasingly takes up new objects and animates them 

 in turn. It is spirit; it is the will of energy expressing 

 itself in time, applying its power in fashioning the 

 moving and changing figures of the creatures it activates. 

 Emanation of the creative Power, it ensures the ever- 

 lasting duration of creation. 



In this uninterrupted chain of existences, the individ- 

 ual in his turn assumes an importance greater than it 

 appears to possess. The little stickleback in its short 

 life, the fifty-year-old carp, and every creature considered 

 in itself, are not sensitive automatons, placed by 

 their structure under the control of their environments, 

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