270 



LAMARCK, HIS LIFE AND WORK 



the most obstinate philosophy to recognize that here 

 the will of the supreme author of all things has been 

 necessary, and has alone sufficed to cause the exist- 

 ence of so many admirable things? 



" Without doubt one would be rash, or rather 

 wholly unreasonable, to pretend to assign limits to 

 the power of the first author of all things ; and by 

 that alone no one can dare to say that this infinite 

 power has not been able to will that which nature 

 herself shows us she has willed. 



" This being so, if I discover that nature herself 

 brings about or causes all the wonders just cited; 

 that she creates the organization, the life, even feel- 

 ing ; that she multiplies and diversifies, within limits 

 which are not known to us, the organs and faculties of 

 organic bodies the existence of which she sustains or 

 propagates ; that she has created in animals by the 

 single way of need, which establishes and directs the 

 habits, the source of all actions, from the most simple 

 up to those which constitute instinct, industry, finally 

 reason, should I not recognize in this power of na- 

 ture — that is to say, of existing things — the execu- 

 tion of the will of its sublime author, who has been 

 able to will that it should have this power? Shall I 

 any the less wonder at the omnipotence of the power 

 of the first cause of all things, if it has pleased itself 

 that things should be thus, than if by so many (sepa- 

 rate) acts of his omnipotent will he should be occu- 

 pied and occupy himself still continually with details 

 of all the special creations, all the variations, and all 

 the developments and perfections, all the destructions 

 and all the renewals — in a word, with all the changes 

 which are in general produced in things which 

 exist ? 



" But I intend to prove in my ' Biologic ' that 

 nature possesses in her faculties all that is necessary 

 to have to be able herself to produce that which we 

 admire in her works; and regarding this subject I 



