XXIV INTRODUCTION. 



organs, gradually appear ; parts are strength- 

 ened and solidified ;* and thus progressively 

 new parts and organs are formed, and more 

 and more perfect organizations produced ; and 

 thus, by consequence, in the lapse of ages a 

 monad becomes a man ! ! ! 



The great object both of La Place and 

 Lamarck seems to be to ascribe all the works 

 of creation to second causes ; and to account 

 for the production of all the visible universe, 

 and the furniture of our own globe, without 

 the intervention of a first. Both begin the 

 work by introducing nebulosities or masses of 

 matter scarcely amounting to real entities, 

 and proceed as if they had agreed together 

 upon the modus operandi. 



As Lamarck's hypothesis relates particu- 

 larly to the animal kingdom, I shall make 

 a few observations upon it, calculated to 

 prove its utter irrationality. 



When, indeed, one reads the above account 

 of the mode by which, according to our 

 author's hypothesis, the first vegetable and 

 animal forms were produced, we can scarcely 

 help thinking that we have before us a receipt 



1 Anim. sans Vertebr. i. 184. 



