254 NATURAL HISTORY. 



We may pause for a moment here to ask the bearing 

 of the above explanation of the long neck of the giraffe on 

 the ordinary doctrine of design as displayed in nature. In 

 the coarse and rude teleology of the first half of the 

 present century, and of preceding periods, the long 

 neck of the giraffe would have been adduced as one 

 striking proof out of many, that the Creator had pro- 

 duced each species of animals as we now find it, and 

 had specially fashioned each to meet the conditions 

 present in the area within which it had been created. 

 To a teleology of this sort Lamarck's view is necessarily 

 and absolutely fatal. At the same time it is to be 

 remembered that Lamarck's theory is entirely compatible 

 with the belief in the existence of a Creator and of 

 design in nature. It is possible, namely, to believe that 

 the power enjoyed by the neck of the giraffe of lengthen- 

 ing under a given set of conditions formed an integral 

 part of the original design of the animal, or of the species 

 from which it was evolved. It may even be held that 

 the design which embraces the power of indefinite adap- 

 tation to varying conditions is of an infinitely higher order 

 than the design which merely adapts an animal for one 

 set of conditions, it being beforehand certain that those 

 conditions must ultimately give place to a different set. 



In the same 'way, a much higher conception underlies 

 the theory of creation by evolution than is involved in 

 the older view of the separate creation of each species. 

 Lamarck has left us in no doubt as to what his own views 

 were on this point. Nor is there the smallest reason 

 to doubt the genuineness of his words, or to think that 

 his remarks like some of those made by Buffon were 



