2 68 THE BEGINNINGS OF IIFE. 



d'un multitude d'Etres organises, appelles a se succeder 

 dans toute la duree de siecles. . . . Le Soleil un million 

 de fois plus grand que la Terre a pour extreme un 

 globule de lumiere, dont plusieurs milliards entrent 

 a la fois dans I'ocil de I'animal vingt-sept millions de 



fois plus petit qu'un Ciron Mais la raison perce 



encore au dela de ce globule de lumiere, elle voit 

 sortir un autre Univers qui a son soleil, ses planetes, 

 ses vege'taux, ses animaux, et parmi ces derniers un 

 animalcule qui est a ce nouveau monde ce que celui 

 dont je viens de parler, est au monde que nous habi- 

 tons^/ Such a conception as this, although perfectly 

 legitimate as a mere fancy, will appear to most people 

 who calmly reflect upon the subject, utterly without 

 claim or title to influence their judgment. An erroneous 

 or inadequate notion concerning the processes of de- 

 velopment which occur in the higher organisms probably 

 induced Bonnet to originate a doctrine which he would 

 not otherwise have countenanced 2. 



^ ' Considerations sur les corps organisees.' Amsterdam, 1772. 



^ On this subject Mr. G. H. Lewes writes with his usual felicity: — 

 ' Although we can only by a fallacy maintain the oak to be contained 

 in the acorn, or the animal contained in the ovum, the fallacy is so 

 natural, and, indeed, so difficult to escape, that there is no ground for 

 surprise when physiologists, on first learning something of development, 

 are found maintaining that the perfect organism existed already in the 

 ovum, having all its lineaments in miniature, and only growing into 

 visible dimensions through the successive stages of evolution (" Nulla 

 in corpore animale pars ante aliam facta est, et omnes simul creatae 

 existunt." Haller, ' Elementa Physiologise,' viii. 148.) The preformation 

 of the organism seemed an inevitable deduction from the opinions once 

 universal. It led to many strange and some absurd conclusions ; among 



