MEMOIR OF LAMARCK. 19 



France was now occupied with the eventful struggle 

 which commenced in 1756. His eldest brother 

 had fallen in the siege of Bergen-op-Zoom ; others 

 of them were still in the army ; and all his most 

 cherished associations were connected with the pro- 

 fession of arms. With so much to inspire an aver- 

 sion to seclusion and comparative inactivity, nothing 

 could have induced him to remain at college but the 

 authority of his father, who still enforced compliance 

 with his wishes. That salutary restraint, however, 

 having been removed by death, in 1760, no time 

 was lost by young Lamarck in following his own 

 inclinations. With nothing but a letter of recom- 

 mendation from a lady residing in the neighbourhood 

 of his father, addressed to the colonel of a French 

 regiment, he set out for the army, which was then in 

 Germany. Lamarck's somewhat diminutive stature 

 and boyish appearance, which made him lookyounger 

 than he really was, were ill fitted to make amends 

 for the want of influential patronage. His reception 

 was by no means flattering, but nothing could daunt 

 the zeal of the young volunteer. He joined a com- 

 pany of grenadiers, and determined to trust to fortune 

 and his own exertions for obtaining that rank which 

 individuals of his birth and education commonly 

 acquire by other means. 



Zeal like this seldom fails sooner or later in 

 attaining its object, and in the present instance it 

 was speedily rewarded. Lamarck had joined the 

 army on the day preceding the battle of Fis- 

 singshausen, in which a vigorous but unsuccessful 



