MEMOIR OF LAMARCK. 43 



imitated, in newly deceased persons, still there are 

 no signs of returning intelligence, there is no life, no 

 voluntary action, not a trace of the spiritual agent 

 that has been summoned from its dwelling. Whence 

 it follows, that though the organization is that by 

 which the intellectual and governing power manifests 

 its presence and habitation, still it is evidently some- 

 thing distinct from and independent of it*." 



With opinions having such a decided tendency 

 to materialism, it is not surprising that Lamarck 

 seldom makes allusion to a Deity, and when he 

 does so, he nearly confines himself to the bare 

 acknowledgment of his existence. In his earlier 

 works, there is no mention made of a Supreme 

 Being whatever; and even when his existence is 

 admitted, He is divested of the attributes which 

 belong to him." The glory of forming the works of 

 creation, in which His beneficence and power are so 

 signally manifested, is ascribed to nature, or a cer- 

 tain order of things. This power to which the Deity 

 has delegated his prerogatives, and which he has 

 appointed his vicegerent, Lamarck defines as " An 

 order of things composed of objects independent of 

 matter, which are determined by the observation of 

 bodies, and the whole amount of which constitutes 

 a power, unalterable in its essence, governed in all 

 its acts, and constantly acting upon all the parts of 

 the physical universe t." This blind power, which 



* Kirby's Bridge. Treat. Intro, p. xxxii. 

 f N. Diet. d'Hist. Nat. xxii. Art. Nature, 377 : Anim. sent* 

 Vert. i. p. 317. 



