84 
ON LIFE AND ORGANIZATION. 
the repeated stretching of their toes, the skin which united them 
at the base acquired a habit of extension, until, in the course of 
time, the broad membranes which now connect their extremities 
were formed. 
“ In like manner the antelope and the gazelle were not en- 
dowed with light agile forms, in order that they might escape by 
flight from carnivorous animals, but, having been exposed to the 
danger of being devoured by lions, and tigers, and other beasts 
of prey, they were compelled to exert themselves in running with 
great celerity, a habit which, in the course of many generations, 
gave rise to the peculiar slenderness of their legs, and the agility 
and elegance of their forms.” 
From what I have stated of Lamarck’s theory, my hearers will 
be prepared also to hear that, “ matter is also capable of assuming 
active energy, and exchanging itself, according to place and cir- 
cumstances, into modes of organized existence.” “ That nature is 
daily engaged in the formation of elementary rudiments of ani- 
mal and vegetable existence — that she is always beginning anew, 
day by day, the work of creation, by forming monads, or ‘ rough 
draughts,’ which are the only living things she gives birth to di- 
rectly. These are gradually developed into the higher and more 
perfect classes, by the slow but unceasing agency of two INFLU- 
ENTIAL PRINCIPLES : first, the tendency to progressive advance- 
ment in organization, accompanied by greater dignity, in instinct, 
intelligence, & c. &c.; secondly, the force of external circum- 
stances, of variations in the physical condition of the earth, or the 
mutual relations of plants and animals.” 
Such is the machinery of the Lamarckian system. Time will 
scarcely allow me to detail to you the process whereby, after a 
countless succession of generations, a small gelatinous body is 
formed into a ring-tailed monkey, thence to an ourang-outang, and 
finally assuming the figure, attitudes, and dignity of man. 
I believe there are very few persons who receive with any de- 
gree of favour this hypothesis of Lamarck ; but the materialists of 
the present day, if they do not believe in the “ transmutation of 
species, ” speak of “ organic matter waiting to be organized,” and so 
docile withal in its nature, that it is more plastic than Hamlet’s cloud, 
which, in the opinion of the old courtier, was “ backed like an 
ouzel — and very like a whale for this plastic matter is, it seems, 
quite ready for sea or land, for plant or for animal; and, just as 
the waves set or the winds blow, it may become a sea-weed or 
a whale, a lettuce or a lion. Doctrines of this kind require only 
to be exposed, that they may be expelled ; — their absurdities speak 
for themselves. They strike directly and immediately at that 
fundamental doctrine of all religion and all morality — the crea- 
