GERM DOCTRINE OF BONNET. 



251 



" A sound philosophy teaches us to think that there is no 

 true generation in nature, and that the bodies which appear to 

 be generated are only developed, since they exist already fully 

 formed en petit in the germs . . . 



"As in the case of the animal germ, so the spiritual germ 

 can only be developed by the action of substance which is 

 analogous to it. If this germ is of a nature analogous to that 

 of fire or of light, then it will be a matter analogous to fire or 

 light which will cause its development . . . and this will be 

 done in unclin d'ceil." (Essai Analyt., pp. 358, 359, 361, 362.) 



Thus Bonnet works out a theory which brings the resurrec- 

 tion into an "order of events purely natural" and provides for 

 the preservation of the personality by " une preordination phy- 

 sique"^ Death is no longer an "envelopment" but "a prepa- 

 ration for a sort of metamorphosis" (p. 351). The "corps ter- 

 restre" is to be shed and the "corps humain" bearing the 

 soul, set free, with a new form, new organs, more perfect 

 senses. 



The ancient doctrine of metempsychosis is completely out- 

 done in this scheme; for the soul is from the beginning in- 

 separably linked to the body which is destined to be its final 

 abode, and in leaping from one state to the next, all it has to 

 do is to leave behind the body that has served its purpose and 

 develop another from the germ coming next in order of em* 

 boitement. 



" Palingene'sie" or "Evolution Nature lie" 

 This idea of metamorphosis opened the way to a further ex- 

 tension of the doctrine of preformation. If one such meta- 

 morphosis as that conceived for the resurrection could be pro- 

 vided for, why not two, three, or more? It was easy to 

 extend the idea to plants and animals and thus account for the 

 repeopling of the earth after any number of revolutions. The 

 basis was broad enough for a scheme embracing the whole 

 animate world, past, present, and future ; and even for a suc- 

 cession of worlds, all peopled with the same beings, but each 

 representing a higher state of existence than the preceding. 



1 Essai Analyt.< p. 353- 



