68 THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES n 



occurred to him that such changes might be as 

 well supposed to take place among animals. 



When we have said that Lamarck felt that 

 mere speculation was not the way to arrive at the 

 origin of species, but that it was necessary, in 

 order to the establishment of any sound theory 

 on the subject, to discover by observation or 

 otherwise, some vera causa, competent to give rise 

 to them; that he affirmed the true order of 

 classification to coincide with the order of their 

 development one from another.; that he insisted 

 on the necessity of allowing sufficient time, very 

 strongly ; and that all the varieties of instinct and 

 reason were traced back by him to the same 

 cause as that which has given rise to species, we 

 have enumerated his chief contributions to the 

 advance of the question. On the other hand, 

 from his ignorance of any power in Nature 

 competent to modify the structure of animals, 

 except the development of parts, or atrophy of 

 them, in consequence of a change of needs, 

 Lamarck was led to attach infinitely greater 

 weight than it deserves to this agency, and the 

 absurdities into which he was led have met with 

 deserved condemnation. Of the straggle for 

 existence, on which, as we shall see, Mr. Darwin 

 lays such great stress, he had no conception ; 

 indeed, he doubts whether there really are such 

 things as extinct species, unless they be such large 

 animals as may have met their death at the 



