DESIRES UNOPERATIVE. J 95 



late the words of my author with sufficient closeness and 

 sobriety ; and had he not been silent on the points, I would 

 also have told you wherefore the desire awoke in some and 

 still sleeps in others ; from what cause it happened that a 

 creature born blind, and all unconscious, became conscious 

 of the existence of light, and felt the wish to see this fair 

 scene ; and by what more than magnetic influence this long- 

 ing wish arranged the particles, and moulded them so curi- 

 ously, that an ordinary mind can perceive only the designing 

 hand of an intelligent First Cause. These are perhajDS ques- 

 tions of Httle moment, and you must rest satisfied with the 

 dicta of the teacher : — 



" For when each would have opeii'd its eyes 

 For the purpose of looking about them, 

 They saw they had no eyes to open, 

 And that there was no seeing without them !" 



You wdll find that, in the second volume of his " Prin- 

 ciples of Geology," Sir Charles Lyell has examined at great 

 length, and more seriously, Lamarck's doctrines ; and the 

 examination is rendered interesting by the manner in which 

 he has conducted the discvission. I need scarcely remind 

 you that Lamarck is not the author of his theory ; it is the 

 revival of a doctrine of ancient date. Bacon warned us 

 against it : — " Again, when man reflects upon the entire 

 liberty of nature, he meets with particular species of things, 

 as animals, plants, minerals, and is thence easily led to 

 imagine that there exists in nature certain primary forms 

 which she strives to produce, and that all variation from them 

 arises from some impediment or error which she is exposed 

 to in completing her work, or from the collision or meta- 

 morphosis of different species. The first hypothesis has 

 produced the doctrine of elementary properties, the second 

 that of occult properties and specific powers ; and both lead to 

 trifling courses of reflection, in which the mind acquiesces, 

 and is thus diverted from more important subjects."* At a 

 period, too, only a little anterior to Lamarck, we find that 

 Dr. Darmn advocated the same doctrine with his usual fanci- 

 ful ingenuity and decisiveness ; and I transcribe for j^ou the 

 following answer to him, because it occurs in a book now rather 

 rare, albeit of great authority in questions of this kind, and 

 which is seldom consulted by naturalists : — *' Dr. Darwin," 

 says my authority, " seems to consider the animals of former 

 times as possessing powers much superior to those of their 

 posterity. They reasoned on their wants : they wished, and 



* Nov. Organum, § G6, p. 37. 



2 



