MEMOIR OF LAMARCK. 61 



speculations. He possessed especially all the re- 

 quisite qualifications for a zoologist, and it is on 

 what he accomplished in this department that his 

 fame must principally rest. When we perceive the 

 admirable manner in which he discerned and cha- 

 racterized natural groups, his skill in seizing on the 

 most distinctive marks of species, the indefatigable 

 industry with which he investigated their history and 

 synonymy, together with the excellence of his system 

 of arrangement, — we are led to regret that he was 

 so late in entering upon this field of labour, as to 

 be obliged to confine his attention to one division 

 of the animal kingdom, and that he so frequently 

 deviated even from that, in order to indulge his 

 favourite practice of theorizing. 



However little value may now be attached to 

 these theories, without a due consideration of them, 

 we can neither appreciate some of the best of La- 

 marck's writings, nor understand the character of 

 the man himself. In his own eyes, they appeared 

 of paramount importance. The most practically 

 useful of his zoological and botanical works he re- 

 garded as trivial in comparison. He conceived them 

 to present a key to some of the most secret opera- 

 tions of nature, and to afford the means of placing 

 many branches of knowledge on a new foundation. 

 This ardent attachment to views which have so 

 generally been considered extravagant and untenable, 

 may seem surprising in the case of an individual 

 whom all must acknowledge to be possessed of 

 much acuteness and discrimination. It is perhaps 



