ROBINET. 121 



tion that as the whole future life was predetermined, 

 so is the whole order of the inorganic Universe. 

 There can, therefore, be no possibility of an animal 

 or plant appearing out of its proper environment. 



Bonnet belonged to the cataclysmic school, be- 

 lieving that the globe had been the scene of great 

 revolutions, and that the chaos described by Moses 

 was the closing chapter of one of these ; thus, the 

 Creation described in Genesis may be only a resur- 

 rection of animals previously existing. Bonnet 

 formulated his echelle or scale in a manner which 

 suggests, not the branching system of Lamarck, 

 but the continuous links of a chain in which the 

 higher types are simply connected with the lower 

 in direct continuity. It is the old scale of Aristotle 

 enlarged and defined by more modern terminology. 



J. B. RENE ROBINET (1735-1820) was another of 

 the speculative group. In his two works, De la 

 Nature, published in 1 766, and Considerations Philo- 

 sophiques sur la gradation naturelle des formes de 

 Fetre, published in 1 768, he advances a remark- 

 able evolutionary structure. He denies all distinc- 

 tion between the organic and inorganic, and reaches 

 an 'echelle des etres' which embraces all things. 

 Influenced by Leibnitz' law of Continuity, he sup- 

 poses that Nature has an aim or constant tendency 

 towards 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 unnec- 



