44 
MEMOIR OF LAMARCK. 
acts necessarily, has not, indeed, called matter into 
existence, but it has formed all bodies of which 
matter is essentially the base ; and as it exercises 
no power except on the latter, which it modifies 
and changes in every possible manner, producing 
all its various aggregates and combinations, we may 
he assured that it is it which has made all bodies 
such as we now behold them, and that it is Na- 
ture which confers on some their properties, and 
on others the faculties which they exercise*. All 
this power Lamarck distinctly admits has been de- 
legated to Nature by the Deity, and among other 
errors which he conceives to have attached to the 
ideas which have been entertained regarding Nature, 
he refutes the notion that N ature is the Deity him- 
self. “ Strange occurrence ! that the watch should 
have been confounded with its maker, the work 
with its author. Assuredly this idea is illogical and 
unfit to he maintained. The power which has 
created Nature, has, without doubt, no limits, can- 
not be restricted in its will or made subject to 
others, and is independent of all law. It alone can 
change Nature and her laws, and even annihilate 
them ; and although we have no positive knowledge 
of this great object, the idea which we thus form 
of the Almighty Power, is at least the most suitable 
for man to entertain of the Divinity, when he can 
raise his thoughts to the contemplation of him. I f 
Nature were an intelligence, it could exercise voli- 
tion, and change its laws, or rather there could be 
* Arum, sans Vert. i. p. 316. 
