LAMARCK. 



123 



pared for man by the Deity.'^ This is supposed to 

 occur by means of the " derivative law." But this again 

 is a -Ovord which conveys no meaning, a phrase which 

 I implies that the horse has become a horse because it 

 was so to be. The predecessors of the horse modify 

 themselves for the interest of man, who does not as yet 

 exist, but is already taken into account by the intelligent 

 Will. 



These ancestors of the horse might therefore be com- 

 pared to the sports of Nature; the transformation takes 

 place, not because from inherent reasons it rtiust take 

 place, but because it so pleases the intelligent Will. We 

 must beg to decline such " natural laws " as these. 

 Owen says, " I deem an innate tendency to deviate from 

 the parental type, operating through periods of adequate 

 duration, to be the most probable nature or way. of op- 

 eration of the secondary law, whereby species have been 

 derived one from the other." ^^ From the Ichthyosaurus 

 to Man, he sees the connection of descent; he denies that 

 the influence of circumstances is decisive; he rejects a 

 dozen ^times any sort of miracle; but the next moment 

 he cleaves to miracle again, namely, to an innate tendency 

 towards a certain future development not imposed by 

 circumstances and dependent on them, but conducive to 

 a special purpose. 



Thus deal the trimmers, who, through fear of conse- 

 quences, appease their scientific consciences with a word. 



We now come to a courageous writer, whose princi- 

 pal work, " La Philosophic Zoologique," ^* was over- 

 looked and well-nigh forgotten for half a century, until it 

 was restored to merited honour by Darwin, but more 

 especially by Haeckel, and quite recently in France by 



