68 THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES Ir 
occurred to him that such changes might be as 
well supposed to take place among animals. , 
When we have said that Lamarck felt that 
mere speculation was not the way to arrive at the 
origin of species, but that it was necessary, in 
order to the establishment of- any sound theory 
on the subject, to discover by observation or 
otherwise, some vera causa, competent to give rise 
to them; that he affirmed the true order of 
classification to coincide with the order of their 
development one from another; that he insisted : 
on the necessity of allowing sufficient time, ve 
strongly ; and that all the varieties of instinct and 
reason were traced back by him to the same 
cause as that which has given rise to species, we 
have enumerated his okie contributions to the 
advance of the question. On the other hand, 
from his ignorance of any power in Nature 
competent to modify the structure of animals, 
except the development of parts, or atrophy of 
them, in consequence of a change of needs, 
eR 
Lamarck was led to attach infinitely greater 
weight than it deserves to this agency, and the 
absurdities into which he was led have met with 
deserved condemnation. Of the struggle for 
existence, on which, as we shall see, Mr. Darwin 
lays such great stress, he had no conception ; 
indeed, he doubts whether there really are such 
things as extinct species, unless they be such large 
animals: as may have met their death at the 
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