60 
MEMOIR OF LAMARCK. 
degree ; and it is adding to the praise of M. de La- 
marck, to recount what his children did for him.” 
After several years of affliction, his constitution 
at last gave way, and he died on the 18th December, 
1829, in the 85th year of his age. Some of his 
children had been carried off previously, and at the 
time of his disease only two sons and two daughters 
survived. The eldest of the former was appointed 
to a situation of considerable trust under govern- 
ment. 
A just estimate of Lamarck’s merits, will entitle 
him to occupy a high place among modem na- 
turalists. Endowed by nature with varied and 
vigorous mental powers, he was fitted to excel in 
many branches of knowledge, and never failed to 
strike out a new path in every department to which 
he attached himself. He possessed, in an eminent 
degree, some intellectual qualities which are not 
frequently combined ; a lofty and active imagination, 
in no way unfitted him for the most unwearied and 
laborious investigation of minute matters of fact. 
Hence he seems equally following the natural bent of 
his mind, when devising a theory to explain the most 
recondite operations of nature, and describing the 
markings of a shell, or the ramifications of a coral. 
It is to be lamented that his imagination so often 
gained the ascendency over his other faculties, and 
led to those daring and licentious speculations which 
have been alluded to. But in other instances, his 
fancy becomes the legitimate handmaid of his reason, 
and lends her aid in beautifying and illustrating his 
