LAMARCK'S THEORY OF EVOLUTION 263 



" Assuredly, whatever has been his will, the omnipo- 

 tence of his power is always the same ; and in what- 

 ever way this supreme will has been manifested, 

 nothing can diminish its greatness. As regards, then, 

 the decrees of this infinite wisdom, I confine myself 

 to the limits of a simple observer of nature. Then, 

 if I discover anything in the course that nature fol- 

 lows in her creations, I shall say, without fear of 

 deceiving myself, that it has pleased its author that 

 she possesses this power. 



" The idea that was held as to species among living 

 bodies was quite simple, easy to grasp, and seemed 

 confirmed by the constancy in the similar form of the 

 individuals which reproduction or generation per- 

 petuated. There still occur among us a very great 

 number of these pretended species which we see 

 every day. 



" However, the farther we advance in the knowl- 

 edge of the different organized bodies with which 

 almost every part of the surface of the globe is 

 covered, the more does our embarrassment increase 

 in determining what should be regarded as species, 

 and the greater is the reason for limiting and distin- 

 guishing the genera. 



" As we gradually gather the productions of nature, 

 as our collections gradually grow richer, we see almost 

 all the gaps filled up, and our lines of demarcation 

 effaced. We find ourselves compelled to make an 

 arbitrary determination, which sometimes leads us to 

 seize upon the slightest differences between varieties 

 to form of them the character of that which we call 

 species, and sometimes one person designates as a 

 variety of such a species individuals a little different, 

 which others regard as constituting a particular 

 species. 



" I repeat, the richer our collections become, the 

 more numerous are the proofs that all is more or less 

 shaded {nuanc^), that the remarkable differences be- 



