xxii INTRODUCTION. 



a non-entity. He speaks, indeed, of a 

 Supreme Intelligence, but it is as Newton's 

 god, whom he blames for attributing the 

 admirable arrangement of the sun, of the 

 planets, and of the comets, to an Intelligent 

 and Almighty Being, 1 and of an Author 

 of Nature, not, however, as the preserver 

 and upholder of the universe, 2 but as per- 

 petually receding, according as the boundaries 

 of our knowledge are extended; 3 thus expel- 

 ling, as it were, the Deity from all care or 

 concern about his own world. 



While the philosopher thus became vain 

 in his imaginations, the naturalist attempted 

 to account for the production of all the various 

 forms and structures of plants and animals 

 upon similar principles. Lamarck, distin- 

 guished by the variety of his talents and 

 attainments, by the acuteness of his intellect, 

 by the clearness of his conceptions, and 

 remarkable for his intimate acquaintance with 

 his subject, thus expresses his opinion as to 

 the origin of the present system of organized 

 beings. " We know, by observation, that 

 the most simple organizations, whether vege- 



1 System of the World, E. Tr. ii. 331. 

 Hid. 332. 3 Ibid. 333. 



