Ch. i. JVallace. Condorcet. 11 



able symptoms or indications of a change, we can 

 infer that a change will take place, we may as 

 well make any assertion whatever ; and think it 

 as unreasonable to be contradicted, in affirming 

 that the moon will come in contact with the earth 

 to-morrow, as in saying that the sun will rise at 

 its expected time. 



With regard to the duration of human life, 

 there does not appear to have existed, from the 

 earliest ages of the world to the present moment, 

 the smallest permanent symptom or indication of 

 increasing prolongation. The observable effects 

 of climate, habit, diet, and other causes, on 

 length of life, have furnished the pretext for as- 

 serting its indefinite extension ; and the sandy 

 foundation on which the argument rests is, that 

 because the limit of human life is undefined, be- 

 cause you cannot mark its precise term, and say 

 so far exactly shall it go, and no farther, therefore 

 its extent may increase for ever, and be properly 

 termed indefinite or unlimited. But the fallacy 

 and absurdity of this argument will sufficiently 

 appear from a slight examination of what M, 

 Condorcet calls the organic perfectibility or de- 

 generation of the race of plants and animals, 

 which, he says, may be regarded as one of the 

 general laws of nature. 



I have been told that it is a maxim among some 

 of the improvers of cattle, that you may breed to 

 any degree of nicety you please ; and they found 

 this maxim upon another, which is, that some of 

 the offspring will possess the desirable qualities of 



