LAMARCK’S THEORY OF EVOLUTION 273 
some corner of a building, and which we may suppose 
are occupied with consulting among themselves as to 
the tradition, to pronounce on the duration of the 
edifice where they occur: and that going back in their 
paltry history to the twenty-fifth generation, they 
should unanimously decide that the building which 
serves. to. shelter them 1s eternal, or at least that it 
has always existed; because it has always appeared 
the same to them; and since they have never heard 
‘it said that it had a beginning. Great things 
(grandeurs) in extent and in duration are relative.’ 
“When man wishes to clearly represent this truth 
he will be reserved in his decisions in regard to stabil- 
ity, which he attributes in nature to the state of 
things which he observes there. + 
“To admit the insensible change of species, and 
the modifications which individuals undergo as they 
are gradually forced to vary their habits or to con- 
tract new ones, we are not reduced to the unique 
consideration of too small spaces of time which our 
observations can embrace to permit us to perceive 
these changes; for, besides this induction, a quantity 
of facts collected for many years throws sufficient 
light on the question that I examine, so that does 
not remain undecided; and I can say now that our 
sciences of observation are too advanced not to have 
the solution sought for made evident. 
“ Indeed, besides what we know of the influences 
and the results of heteroclite fecundations, we know 
positively to-day that a forced and long-sustained 
change, both in the habits and mode of life of ani- 
mals, and in the situation, soil, and climate of plants, 
brings about, after a sufficient time has elapsed, 
very remarkable change in the individuals which are 
exposed to them. 
* Ibid, This is repeated from the article in the Axnales. 
t¢ Lbid. ‘‘See my Recherches sur les Corps vivans” (Appendix, 
De TAD); 
18 
