110 LAMARCK, HIS LIFE AND WORK 
lives, the banks which are formed of them, the dif- 
ferent beds which these banks may present, etc., etc., 
so that we do not believe it out of place to insert 
here the principal considerations which have already 
resulted from that which is known in this respect. 
“ The fossils which are found in the dry parts of 
the surface of the globe are evident indications of a 
long sojourn of the sea in the very places where we 
observe them.’ Under this heading, after repeating 
the statement previously made that fossils occur in 
all parts of the dry land, in the midst of the conti- 
nents and on high mountains, he inquires dy what 
cause so many marine shells could be found in the 
explored parts of the world. Discarding the old idea 
that they are monuments of the deluge, transformed 
into fossils, he denies that there was such a general 
catastrophe as a universal deluge, and goes on to say 
in his assured, but calm and philosophic way : 
“On the globe which we inhabit, everything is 
submitted to continual and inevitable changes, which 
result from the essential order of things: they take 
place, in truth, with more or less promptitude or 
slowness, according to the nature, the condition, or 
the situation of the objects; nevertheless they are 
wrought in some time or other. 
“To nature, time is nothing, and it never presents 
a difficulty ; she always has it at her disposal, and it 
is for her a means without limit, with which she has 
made the greatest as well as the least things. 
“The changes to which everything in this world is 
subjected are changes not only of form and of na- 
ture, but they are changes also of bulk, and even of 
situation. 
“All the considerations stated in the preceding 
chapters should convince us that nothing on the sur- 
