LAMARCK'S THEORY OF EVOLUTION 



259 



of faculties, is it not evident that in the case where 

 nature would exert some active power on the exist- 

 ence of these organized bodies she has been able to 

 make them exist only by beginning with the most 

 simple, and that she has been able to form directly 

 among the animals only that which I call the rough 

 sketches or germs {^bauches) of animality — that is to 

 say, only these animalcules, almost invisible and to 

 some extent without consistence, that we see develop 

 spontaneously and in an astonishing abundance in 

 certain places and under certain circumstances, while 

 only in contrary circumstances are they totally 

 destroyed ? 



" Do we not therefore perceive that by the action 

 of the laws of organization, which I have just now in- 

 dicated, and by that of different means of multiplica- 

 tion which are due to them {qui en d^rivent), nature 

 has in favorable times, places, and climates multiplied 

 her first germs {^bauches) of animality, given place 

 to developments of their organizations, rendered 

 gradually greater the duration of those which have 

 originally descended from them, and increased and 

 diversified their organs ? Then always preserving the 

 progress acquired by the reproductions of individuals 

 and the succession of generations, and aided by much 

 time and by a slow but constant diversity of circum- 

 stances, she has gradually brought about in this respect 

 the state of things which we now observe. 



" How grand is this consideration, and especially 

 how remote is it from all that is generally thought on 

 this subject ! Moreover, the astonishment which its 

 novelty and its singularity may excite in you requires 

 that at first you should suspend your judgment in 

 regard to it. But the observation which establishes 

 it is now on record (consignee), and the facts which 

 support it exist and are incessantly renewed ; how- 

 ever, as they open a vast field to your studies and to 

 your own researches, it is to you yourselves that I 



