178 FROM THE GREEKS TO DARWIN 



published in 1766, and Considerations philo- 

 sophiques sur la gradation naturelle des formes 

 de Vetre, published in 1768 — he advances a re- 

 markable evolutionary structure. He denies all 

 distinction between the organic and inorganic, 

 and reaches an 'echelle des etres' which embraces 

 all things. Influenced by Leibnitz' law of Con- 

 tinuity, he supposes that Nature has an aim or 

 constant tendency toward the perfection of each 

 type; since the beginning her aim has been to 

 produce man, and the higher apes appear as the 

 last efforts of Nature before she succeeded in 

 making man. It is unnecessary to add that Robi- 

 net was a daring speculator. He claimed that 

 one's first steps should be guided by facts, but 

 that beyond this, man's reason and intelligence 

 should not be trammelled by observation or by 

 experiment, but should advance free from induc- 

 tion. 



Robinet sees in man the chef-d'oeuvre of Na- 

 ture. All the variations exhibited in the lower 

 forms of animals, from the original prototype 

 upward, are to be regarded as so many trials 

 which Nature meditates upon; not only the 

 orang-outang, but the horse, the dog, even miner- 

 als and fossils — are not these experiments of Na- 

 ture? But man is for the time only the last of 

 the series ; beings more perfect may replace him 

 at any time. Robinet departs so early from ob- 



