82 EVOLUTION, SOCIAL AND ORGANIC 



the seven years war and then occupied himself 

 studying medicine and science at Paris. He 

 died, poor and blind, in 1829. 



Lamarck boldly proclaimed his unshakable 

 faith in the doctrine of the transformation of 

 species, and defended it against the strong tide 

 of popular disfavor and the overwhelming 

 opposition provoked by the antagonism of the 

 great zoologist Cuvier. Cuvier's opposition 

 would have crushed a weaker man but La- 

 marck bore bravely up and calmly left his case 

 for the future to decide. Cuvier held species 

 to be constant, as was consonant with current 

 and orthodox ideas. This made him a social 

 favorite and the pet of the church, and honors 

 were showered profusely upon him to the end 

 of his days. Not so Lamarck; although born 

 25 years earlier, his theories were half a 

 century in advance of Cuvier's, and he paid the 

 penalty that has so often overtaken those 

 pioneers whose vision anticipated the future. 



"Attacked on all sides," says his friend and 

 colleague, Geoflfroy St. Hilaire, "injured like- 

 wise by odious ridicule, Lamarck, too indig- 

 nant to answer these cutting epigrams, sub- 

 mitted to the indignity with a sorrowful 



patience Lamarck lived a long while 



poor, blind, and forsaken, but not by me; I 

 shall ever love and venerate him." Another 



