Exfoliation 



having arisen, that people would prosper best 

 which most effectually and rapidly adapted itself 

 to them. But though there is doubtless truth 

 in this view, yet it seems, when all has been said, 

 to be inadequate and even feeble ; it omits at least 

 one half of the problem. If we look at ourselves, 

 as already pointed out, we see the two forces — 

 the inner and the outer — acting and re-acting 

 on each other. May it not be so in animals ? 

 Lamarck, poorly off, blind, derided, was a true 

 poet. " Animals vary from low and primitive 

 types chiefly by dint of wishing " — and the world 

 laughed and still laughs. But it was his deep 

 sympathy even with the worms and insects (which 

 he studied till he could discern them with his 

 mortal eyes no longer) that led Lamarck to see 

 the human nature and the human laws that moved 

 within them ; and as his outward sight grew dim 

 there arose before him the inward vision of the 

 true relationship which binds together all living 

 creatures — which was indeed a vision of divine 

 things, and as different from the mere mechanism- 

 theory of the survival of the fittest as the sight 

 of the starry heavens is different from a governess's 

 lesson on the use of the globes. 



On the theory of Exfoliation, which was practi- 

 cally Lamarck's theory, there is a force at work 

 throughout creation, ever urging each type onward 

 into new and newer forms. This force appears 

 first in consciousness in the form of desire. Within 

 each shape of life sleep needs and wants without 

 number, from the lowest and simplest to the most 



195 



