84 LAMARCK, HIS LIFE AND WORK 
After paying his respects to Priestley, he asks: 
“What, then, can be the reason why the views of 
chemists and mine are so opposed?” and complains 
that the former have avoided all written discussion 
on this subject. And this after his three physico- 
chemical works, the Refutation, the Recherches, and 
the AZémotres had appeared, and seemed to chemists 
to be unworthy of a reply. 
It must be admitted that Lamarck was on this 
occasion unduly self-opinionated and stubborn in ad- 
hering to such views at a time when the physical 
sciences were being placed on a firm and lasting 
basis by experimental philosophers. The two great 
lessons of science—to suspend one’s judgment and to 
wait for more light in theoretical matters on which 
scientific men were so divided—and the necessity of 
adhering to his own line of biological study, where 
he had facts of his own observing on which to rest 
his opinions, Lamarck did not seem ever to have 
learned. 
The excuse for his rash and quixotic course in re- 
spect to his physico-chemical vagaries is that he had 
great mental activity. Lamarck was a synthetic 
philosopher. He had been brought up in the ency- 
clopedic period of learning. He had from his early 
manhood been deeply interested in physical subjects. 
In middle age he probably lived a very retired life, 
did not mingle with his compeers or discuss his views 
with them. So that when he came to publish them, 
he found not a single supporter. His speculations 
were received in silence and not deemed worthy of 
discussion. 
