no LAMARCK, HIS LIFE AND WORK 



lives, the banks which are formed of them, the dif- 

 ferent beds which these banks may present, etc., etc., 

 so that we do not believe it out of place to insert 

 here the principal considerations which have already 

 resulted from that which is known in this respect. 



" The fossils which are found in the dry parts of 

 the surface of the globe are evident indications of a 

 long sojourn of the sea in the very places where we 

 observe them." Under this heading, after repeating 

 the statement previously made that fossils occur in 

 all parts of the dry land, in the midst of the conti- 

 nents and on high mountains, he inquires by what 

 cause so many marine shells could be found in the 

 explored parts of the world. Discarding the old idea 

 that they are monuments of the deluge, transformed 

 into fossils, he denies that there was such a general 

 catastrophe as a universal deluge, and goes on to say 

 in his assured, but calm and philosophic way : 



" On the globe which we inhabit, everything is 

 submitted to continual and inevitable changes, which 

 result from the essential order of things : they take 

 place, in truth, with more or less promptitude or 

 slowness, according to the nature, the condition, or 

 the situation of the objects ; nevertheless they are 

 wrought in some time or other. 



" To nature, time is nothing, and it never presents 

 a difficulty ; she always has it at her disposal, and it 

 is for her a means without limit, with which she has 

 made the greatest as well as the least things. 



" The changes to which everything in this world is 

 subjected are changes not only of form and of na- 

 ture, but they are changes also of bulk, and even of 

 situation. 



" All the considerations stated in the preceding 

 chapters should convince us that nothing on the sur- 



