LIFE ON THE EARTH. 183 



has given to the dreams of De Maillet a regular 

 form and delusive symmetry 1 . 



Lamarck supposes all the phenomena of life may 

 be accounted for upon electro-chemical principles, 

 and that the higher and more intelligent races of 

 animals may have been gradually formed by the 

 plastic power of nature, out of the smallest and 

 simplest. By nature, we are to understand a certain 

 order of causes and effects, constituted by the will 

 of the Supreme Author of all things, and appointed 

 to produce all the phenomena of the material world. 

 In obedience to this secondary power he supposes 

 that the attractive force of matter is sufficient to pro- 

 duce small portions of gelatinous substance, capable of 

 being acted on by these powerful agents, caloric and 

 electricity, and that when thus acted on they exhibit 

 vital energies ; in other words, that caloric and elec- 

 tricity acting on appropriate dead matter may convert 

 it into living organic matter. Further, that the mo- 

 difying influence of circumstances has caused these 

 indefinite organic living masses to be extended into 

 various animal forms; that first were produced the 

 more simple, from these, by methods of reproduction, 

 aided by the continued action of the same vital fluids 

 and under the influence of changed circumstances 



1 Philosophic Zoologique and Introduction to Animaux sans 

 Vertebres. 



