DUBLIN NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY. 137 



accuracy of the pretensions of loose and ill- reasoned speculations on the 

 origin of life. It has rained, hailed, and poured theories of life, — reli- 

 gious, philosophical, and pseudo-scientific, — with a marvellous rapidity, 

 within the last few years. Some theorists have started from the nebu- 

 lar hypothesis of Laplace ; others have speculated on the results of 

 superfoetation ; and others on the brilliant and seductive theory of the 

 correlation of physical forces ; but they may all be classed as, knowingly 

 or not, the followers of Lamarck. Some have taught that all the planets, 

 being composed of the saijie mineral constituents as the earth, must 

 produce in succession the same organic phenomena, and weary the 

 reader with the idea of the same pterodactyles and cetacea, the same 

 monads and men, appearing on all the globes that circle round the sun! 

 Others have called to mind the loss of heat of our planet, and, by the 

 correlation of forces, have reproduced it in the increasing intelligence of 

 the successive forms of life that have peopled our globe ! ! In a word, 

 there is no folly that human fancy can devise, when truth has ceased to 

 be of primary importance, and right reason and sound logic have been 

 discarded, that has not been produced, and preached as a new revela- 

 tion. JSTeither have the disciples of Lamarck wanted the martyr spirit, 

 i. e. the disposition to make martyrs of others, which is generally 

 supposed to be essential to the apostles of a new faith. They have 

 courted persecution, and reviled their opponents with bitter words, and 

 with such weapons as are permitted by the free civilization under which 

 we live. They argue, with a logic worthy of their system, that because 

 truth has been often in a minority, therefore minorities and theories in 

 a minority must necessarily be true. 



It is curious to observe the natural instinct by which Lamarck and 

 his followers appeal from the judgment of their peers to the young, the 

 enthusiastic, and the inexperienced. I shall quote but two instances 

 of this necessary instinct of self-preservation : — 



" Que de reflexions ces considerations pourrout faire naitre dans 

 r esprit du petit nombre de ceux qui en sont susceptibles et qui sont 

 lents a prononcer ! les autres auront bientot fait a cet egard : ils tran- 

 cheront sans examen, et decideront d'apres ce qui leur conviendra le 

 mieux, ou selon, la portee de leurs conceptions." — Lamarch, p. 123. 



" I by no means expect to convince experienced naturalists, whose 

 minds are stocked with a multitude of facts, all viewed, during a long 

 course of years, from a point of view directly opposite to mine . . . 

 . . . but I look with confidence to the future, to young and ris- 

 ing naturalists, who will be able to view both sides of the question with 

 impartiality." — DarivirCs Origin of Species, pp. 481-82. 



The theories of ^lo^ieveai's, already described, and many others, are 

 based upon the following three unwarrantable assumptions, the denial 

 of which, until proved, brings to the ground the entire structure, like a 

 child's house of cards — 



I. The indefinite variation of species continuously in the one direc- 

 tion. 



