84 LAMARCK, HIS LIFE AND WORK 



After paying his respects to Priestley, he asks: 

 " What, then, can be the reason why the views a 

 chemists and mine are so opposed?" and complains* 

 that the former have avoided all written discussion 

 on this subject. And this after his three physico- 

 chemical works, the Refutation, the Recherches, and 

 the Memoires had appeared, and seemed to chemists 

 to be unworthy of a reply. 



It must be admitted that Lamarck was on this 

 occasion unduly self-opinionated and stubborn in ad- 

 hering to such views at a time when the physical 

 sciences were being placed on a firm and lasting 

 basis by experimental philosophers. The two great 

 lessons of science — to suspend one's judgment and to 

 wait for more light in theoretical matters on which 

 scientific men were so divided- — and the necessity of 

 adhering to his own line of biological study, where 

 he had facts of his own observing on which to rest 

 his opinions, Lamarck did not seem ever to have 

 learned. 



The excuse for his rash and quixotic course in re- 

 spect to his physico-chemical vagaries is that he had 

 great mental activity. Lamarck was a synthetic 

 philosopher. He had been brought up in the ency- 

 clopaedic period of learning. He had from his early 

 manhood been deeply interested in physical subjects. 

 In middle age he probably lived a very retired life, 

 did not mingle with his compeers or discuss his views 

 with them. So that when he came to publish them, 

 he found not a single supporter. His speculations 

 were received in silence and not deemed worthy of 

 discussion. 



