144 MEMOIRS OF 



group near each being, a certain number of 

 other beings which approach it in different de- 

 grees ; must necessarily be the case. But, that 

 we ought to apply to the resemblances of these 

 simultaneous beings, that which is true concern- 

 ing tlie relation of successive phenomena and 

 events ; that the forms of these beings necessa- 

 rily constitute a series or a chain, so that the eye 

 may gradually pass from one to the other, with- 

 out finding any gap, any hiatus ; in short, the 

 existence of a continued and regular scale in the 

 forms of beings, from the stone to the man ; 

 this is what our three concessions by no means 

 prove ; this is what is not true, whatever elo- 

 quence may have been used in tracing the ima- 

 ginary picture. The philosophers who have 

 supported this system of a scale of beings, at 

 each interruption which is pointed out to them, 

 pretend, that if a step is wanting, it is hidden 

 in some corner of tlie globe, where a fortunate 

 traveller may one day discover it. Neverthe- 

 less, all regions, all seas, have been explored ; 

 the number of species collected increases every 

 day ; there are, perhaps, an hundred-fold more 

 than when these paradoxical opinions began to 

 be established, and none of the spaces are filled 

 up ; all the interruptions remain j there is no- 



