MEMOIR OF LAMARCK. 
45 
no lair. Finally, if Nature were God, its will 
would be independent, its acts unconstrained ; but 
this is not the case ; it is, on the contrary, con- 
tinually subject to constant laws, over which it has 
no power : it hence follows, that although its means 
are infinitely diversified and inexhaustible, it acts 
always in the same manner in the same circum- 
stances, without the power of acting otherwise 
While thus admitting the existence of the Deity, 
any direct interference in the affairs of the universe 
is wholly denied to him. His sovereignty is re- 
duced to a mere nominal supremacy, as he is sup- 
posed to take no care or thought for the worlds 
which he authorized or permitted to be created, and 
can have no sympathy for the creatures which in- 
habit them. As with La Place, and so many other 
philosophers of the French school, every thing is 
ascribed to secondary causes , which are made to 
usurp the place and attributes of the Divinity. 
Lamarck’s deity r , therefore, is the exact counterpart 
of the god of Epicurus, whose being is allowed 
seemingly more for the purpose of giving consistency 
to a theory, or a compliance with generally received 
opinions, than from any urgent conviction of his 
reality; and we may justly apply to him what was 
said of the Grecian philosopher ; Re tollit, oratione 
relinquit Deum. 
It has been already mentioned, that Lamarck’s 
attention was early directed to meteorology, and it 
seems long to have continued to form one of his 
* Anim. sans Vert., vol. i. 322. 
