322 HAMBLES OF A 2TATURALIST. 



Among the questions which Geoffroy had to consider 

 in maintaining his general proposition, that of monstros- 

 ities was the most beset with difficulties. To refer aber- 

 rant forms to regular forms, — to seek to trace in the de- 

 velopment of these singular beings the laws of normal 

 development, — to demonstrate that in these pretended 

 sports of nature, ordinary forces are only brought into 

 play in accordance with common laws, — to employ- 

 apparent deviations to discover those laws and forces 

 which escape our attention when their action is exercised 

 without any obstacle, — to determine the causes of their 

 perturbations, — and thus to arrive at an idea of mon- 

 strosity, not in the vague and unphilosophical manner of 

 Montaigne, but to judge of it with such precision as to 

 be able to characterise and classify monsters in the same 

 manner as in the case of normal beings, — this is the pro- 

 blem on the solution of which Geoffroy entered full of con- 

 fidence in his own powers ; a confidence which has been 

 justified in respect at least to all the principal points of 

 the inquiry. This work, which is one of the most re- 

 markable of the eventful period in which it was under- 

 taken, would be sufiicient to immortalise the name of its 

 author. 



Four essential principles have especially guided 

 Geoffroy in these researches, which were alike delicate 

 in method and elevated in character : — 



I. The principle of Les Affinites electives of organic 

 elements, which he subsequently generalised under the 

 name of La loi d' attraction du soi pour soi. 



II. The principle of Analogues, according to which he 

 considers that those organs mutually represent each other 

 which have identical relations with other parts of the 

 organism. 



m. The principle of Connexions, in virtue of which an 

 organ becomes atrophied, or disappears from one animal 



