MEMOIR OF LAMARCK. 
35 
date to convince us of our mistake. If vve observe 
that the forms of the parts of animals are always 
perfect when viewed in relation to their use, as is 
really the case, it is not to be inferred that it is the 
form of the parts which has led them to be employed 
in a certain way, as zoologists assert, but that it is, 
on the contrary, tho need of action which has pro- 
duced the peculiar parts, and it is the employment 
of these parts which has developed them, and esta- 
blished a proper relation between them and their 
functions. To affirm that the form of the parts in- 
duced their functions, would be to leave Nature 
without power, incapable of producing any act, or 
any change in bodies; and the different parts of 
animals, as well as the animals themselves, as all 
created at first, would from that moment present as 
many forms as are required by the diversity of cir- 
cumstances in which animals live ; and it would be 
necessary that these circumstances should never 
vary, and that such should likewise be the case with 
the parts of each animal. Nothing, however, of' this 
kind takes place, and nothing can be more opposite 
to the means which observation shows us that 
Nature employs to call into existence her manifold 
productions. It must hence appear, that what are 
called species do not exist in nature ; that the con- 
stancy of races to which that name has been given, 
can only be temporary and not absolute, although 
they would no doubt continue the same as long as 
the circumstances which effect them undergo no 
change, and they are not forced to alter their ha- 
