MEMOIR OF LAMARCK. 23S 



CHAPTER XV. 

 MEMOIB OF LAMABCK. 



I TAKE the following memoir of Lamarck entirely from 

 the biographical sketch prefixed by M. Martins to his ex- 

 cellent edition of the ' Philosophic Zoologique.' * From 

 this sketch I find that " Lamarck was bom August 1, 

 1744, at Barenton, in Picardy, being the eleventh child 

 of Pierre de Monet, squire of the place, a man of old 

 family, but poor. His father intended him for the 

 Church, the ordinary resource of younger sons at that 

 time, and accordingly placed him under the care of the 

 Jesuits at Amiens. But this was not his vocation : the 

 annals of his family spoke all to him of military glory ; 

 his eldest brother had died in the breaches at the siege 

 of Bergen-op-Zoom ; two others were still serving in the 

 army, and France was exhausting her energies in an 

 unequal struggle. His father would not yield to his 

 wishes, but on his death, in 1760, Lamarck was left 

 free to take his own line, and made his way at once — 

 upon a very bad horse — to the army of Germany, 

 then encamped at Lippstadt in Westphalia. 



" He was the bearer of a letter written by Madame 

 de Lameth, one of his neighbours in the country, and 

 recommending him to M. de Lastic, colonel of the 



• Paris, 1873. 



