MEMOIR OF LAMARCK. 37 



refutation of them. It is difficult, indeed, to con- 

 ceive how Lamarck could advance a theory so 

 utterly opposed to observation and probability, and 

 at the same time succeed so effectually in convincing 

 himself of its truth. He must have perceived many 

 of the inadmissible and absurd conclusions to which 

 it led ; yet he persists in maintaining it by a kind 

 of sophistry which could impose on none but him- 

 self. He admits the value of observation and ex- 

 perience in the discovery of truth ; but finding that 

 they bore no testimony to the wonderful transforma- 

 tions he was desirous to prove, he gets rid of their 

 evidence altogether, by alleging that they do not 

 extend over a sufficiently lengthened period to take 

 cognizance of these changes. The argument, there- 

 fore, on this point, virtually amounts to this, that 

 observation gives no notice of these operations, but 

 that instead of thence inferring that they do not 

 take place, the proper conclusion is, that they ar« 

 actually going on, and have been in progress since 

 the creation ! How indispensable unlimited time is 

 to give an air of plausibility to Lamarck's theory, is 

 strikingly evinced by the fact, of which he was 

 perfectly aware, that we have the means of com- 

 paring animals that lived upwards of two or three 

 thousand years ago, with the same species as they 

 exist at present, and the conformity between them 

 is found to be complete. Numerous quadrupeds, 

 birds, reptiles, and insects, have been found em- 

 balmed in the Egyptian cemeteries, with all the 

 parts in such a state of preservation as to be per- 



