286 LAMARCK, HIS LIFE AND WORK 



" Shall we dare to extend the spirit of system so 

 far as to say that it is Nature who has herself alone 

 created this astonishing diversity of means, of con- 

 trivances, of skill, of precautions, of patience, of whjch 

 the industry of animals offers us so many examples? 

 What we observe in this respect in the simple class 

 of insects, is it not a thousand times more than suffi- 

 cient to make us realize that the limit to the power 

 of Nature in nowise permits her to herself produce 

 so many marvels, but to force the most obstinate 

 philosopher to recognize that here the will of the 

 Supreme Author of all things has been necessary, and 

 has alone sufficed to create so many admirable things ? 



" Without doubt, one would be rash or, rather, 

 wholly insensate, to pretend to assign limits to the 

 power of the first Author of all things ; but, aside 

 from that, no one could dare to say that this infinite 

 power could not will that which Nature even shows 

 us it has willed "* (p. 6f). 



Referring to the alleged proof of the fixity of 

 species brought forward by Cuvier in the Annales 

 du Museum d'Histoire naturelle (i., pp. 235 and 236) 

 that the mummied birds, crocodiles, and other ani- 

 mals of Egypt present no differences from those now 

 living, Lamarck says : 



, \' / " It would assuredly be very singular if it were 



f otherwise, because the position of Egypt and its 



I climate are still almost exactly what they were at 



\that epoch. Moreover, the birds which live there 



still exist under the same circumstances as they were 



then, not having been obliged to change their habits. 



" Moreover, who does not perceive that birds, 



which can so easily change their situation and seek 



* The foregoing pages (283-286) are reprinted by the author from 

 the Discours of 1803. See pp. 266-270. 



