MEMOIR OF LAMARCK. 45 



no law. Finally, if Nature were God, its will 

 would be independent, its acts unconstrained ; but 

 this is not the case ; it is, on the contrary, con- 

 tinually subject to constant laws, over which it has 

 no power : it hence follows, that although its means 

 are infinitely diversified and inexhaustible, it acts 

 always in the same manner in the same circum- 

 stances, without the power of acting otherwise*." 



While thus admitting the existence of the Deity, 

 any direct interference in the affairs of the universe 

 is wholly denied to him. His sovereignty is re- 

 duced to a mere nominal supremacy, as he is sup- 

 posed to take no care or thought for the worlds 

 which he authorized or permitted to be created, and 

 can have no sympathy for the creatures which in- 

 habit them. As with La Place, and so many other 

 philosophers of the French school, every thing is 

 ascribed to secondary causes, which are made to 

 usurp the place and attributes of the Divinity. 

 Lamarck's deity, therefore, is the exact counterpart 

 of the god of Epicurus, whose being is allowed 

 seemingly more for the purpose of giving consistency 

 to a theory, or a compliance with generally received 

 opinions, than from any urgent conviction of his 

 reality ; and we may justly apply to him what was 

 said of the Grecian philosopher ; Re tollk, oratione 

 relinquit Deum. 



It has been already mentioned, that Lamarck's 

 attention was early directed to meteorology, and it 

 seems lono; to have continued to form one of his 

 * Anim. sans Vert., vol. i. 322. 



