136 DUBLIN NATTJKAL HISTOKY SOCIETY. 



necessaries for the preservation of the individual and species. This 

 notable argument is boiTowed from Malthus' doctrine of population, 

 and will, no doubt, find acceptance with those political economists and 

 pseudo-philosophers who reduce all the laws of action and human 

 thought habitually to the lowest and most sordid motives. It is digni- 

 fied with the title of a Law of Nature, called the Law of Natural Selec- 

 tion, and forms the only londfide addition made by Darwin to Lamarck's 

 famous Theory of Progression ; in which, however, it is implicitly in- 

 volved. 



I make no account of Mr. Darwin's geological additions to Lamarck, 

 for two reasons. In the first place, the laws of geographical distribu- 

 tion explained by geological change are not ad rem, and were previously 

 fully treated of by Buffon and Forbes ; and in the second place, Mr. 

 Darwin admits that the facts of geology are opposed to his (Lamarck's) 

 theory, and they are pleasantly alluded to as the geological difiicultyl 

 So far as the history of life on the globe indicates a progression, La- 

 marck is entitled to the benefit of it, as in the case of mammals and 

 plants ; but certainly not to the exclusion of the facts in favour of de- 

 gradation, — such as the case of Fishes, Reptiles, and Cephalopods, 

 which must be credited to the account of Bufi'on and his followers. 



Lamarck says distinctly : — " Ce ne sent pas les organes, c'est a dire, 

 la nature et la forme des parties du corps d'un animal, qui ont donne 

 lieu a ses habitudes et a ses facultes particulieres; mais ce sont au con- 

 traire ses habitudes, sa maniere de vivre, et les cir Constances dans les- 

 quelles se sont rencontres les individus dont il provient, qui ont avec le 

 temps constitue la forme de son corps, le nombre et I'etat de ses organes, 

 enfin les facultes dont il jouit." 



This statement implies all that is essential in Mr. Darwin's Law of 

 Natural Selection, which, by its prominence, fills in his system the place 

 occupied by the Law of Imitation in the original theory of Lamarck. 

 This diff'erence arises from the difference of the points of view of the 

 Frenchman and the Englishman, — a diff'erence characteristic of the two 

 races. The Frenchman, with the vivacity and perception of the ridicu- 

 lous belonging to his nation, seizes upon the quality most likely to ele- 

 vate a monkey into a man, selects the faculty of imitation, and, with a 

 bitter satire, endows his monkey with the human desire to better his 

 condition, and lift himself above his brother chatterers. He thus mag- 

 nifies the monkey power of imitation, — which is truly wonderful, and 

 extends to the most extraordinary actions, — into the position of a law 

 of nature, sufficient to create man ! The Englishman, on the other 

 hand, firmly believes his theory, and, with a confident faith in the 

 power of food and comfort, equally characteristic of his country, elevates 

 the desire to supply the stomach into a law of sufficient force to convert 

 an eel into an elephant, or an oyster into an orang-outan. 



Other theoiists, whose name is legion, have printed their crude 

 fancies, and have met with numerous readers among the young and in- 

 experienced, — the sciolists of science. It is not to be supposed that a 

 public which accepted mesmerism and table-turning could judge with 



