BONNET'S THEORY OF EVOLUTION. 237 



guise the organism, without effecting any real change in its essential 

 parts. "The soil, cultivation, and other special conditions, may 

 influence the proportions and certain characters, so as to make 

 it difficult to recognize the species. Here will be a dwarf, there a 

 giant. Do not allow yourself to be imposed upon thereby ; bring 

 them both to close examination, and you will be able to discover the 

 species in the midst of these deceptive appearances. The forms may 

 likewise change, and disguise the species still more ; redouble your 

 attention, and you will recognize the disguise." (Contemplation, I, 

 Part VII, Chap. XII, p. 295.) 



We meet with this idea of the immutability of species at every 

 turn, in both the earlier and later writings of Bonnet. In the eighth 

 chapter of the Corps Organises (p. 90) we read : " Nature is assuredly 

 admirable in the conservation of individuals ; but she is especially so 

 in the conservation of species. . . . No change, no alteration, per- 

 fect identity. Species maintain themselves victoriously over the 

 elements, over time, over death, and the term of their duration is 

 unknown." 



In the same chapter (p. 89) Bonnet says : " We cannot doubt that 

 the species which existed at the beginning of the world, were no less 

 numerous than those which exist to-day. The diversity and the 

 multitude of combinations, perhaps also the diversity of climates and 

 of foods, have given rise to new species or to intermediate indi- 

 viduals. These individuals uniting in their turn, the shades have 

 multiplied, and in multiplying become less noticeable. The pear- 

 tree among plants, the common fowl among birds, the dog among 

 quadrupeds furnish striking examples of this truth." 



Here Bonnet speaks in language befitting modern evolution of 

 " new species," the very thing so positively denied. This manner of 

 self-contradiction is habitual, and there is not the least inconsistency 

 in it. Bonnet describes appearances, and he expects the reader to 

 remember, what he has so often repeated, that appearances are 

 deceptive. In many instances he uses the language of modern 

 evolutionary doctrines without having any conception of them, and 

 carrying always ideas that contradict them. 



Bonnet's Preformation an Incorrigible Negation. 



This preformation theory, contradicting appearances at every 

 point, seemed to Bonnet and many other eminent men of the 

 eighteenth century to magnify the glory of the Creator. To 



