LAMARCK’S THEORY OF EVOLUTION 259 
of faculties, is it not evident that in the case where 
nature would exert some active power on the exist- 
ence of these organized bodies she has been able to 
make them exist only by beginning with the most 
simple, and that she has been able to form directly 
among the animals only that which I call the rough 
sketches or germs (¢bauches) of animality—that is to 
say, only these animalcules, almost invisible and to 
some extent without consistence, that we see develop 
spontaneously and in an astonishing abundance in 
certain places and under certain circumstances, while 
only in contrary circumstances are they totally 
destroyed ? 
“Do we not therefore perceive that by the action 
of the laws of organization, which I have just now in- 
dicated, and by that of different means of multiplica- 
tion which are due to them (quz e2 dérivent), nature 
has in favorable times, places, and climates multiplied 
her first germs (ébauches) of animality, given place 
to developments of their organizations, rendered 
gradually greater the duration of those which have 
originally descended from them, and increased and 
diversified their organs? Then always preserving the 
progress acquired by the reproductions of individuals 
and the succession of generations, and aided by much 
time and by a slow but constant diversity of circum- 
stances, she has gradually brought about in this respect 
the state of things which we now observe. 
“How grand is this consideration, and especially 
how remote is it from all that is generally thought on 
this subject! Moreover, the astonishment which its 
novelty and its singularity may excite in you requires 
that at first you should suspend your judgment in 
regard to it. But the observation which establishes 
it is now on record (couszgnée), and the facts which 
support it exist and are incessantly renewed; how- 
ever, as they open a vast field to your studies and to 
your own researches, it is to you yourselves that I 
