[188] It should be noticed that Lamarck does not absolutely state that there are no variations whatever in instinct. His words are much less positive: “Sans offrer de variation notable.” This dues not exclude the fact, discovered since his time, that instincts are more or less variable, thus affording grounds for Darwin’s theory of the origin of new kinds of instincts from the “accidental variation of instincts.” Professor James’ otherwise excellent version of Lamarck’s view is inexact and misleading when he makes Lamarck say that instincts are “perpetuated without variation from one generation to another, so long as the outward conditions of existence remain the same” (The Principles of Psychology, vol. ii., p. 678, 1890). He leaves out the word notable. The italics are ours. Farther on (p. 337), it will be seen that Lamarck acknowledges that in birds and mammals instinct is variable.
[189] It is interesting to compare with this Darwin’s theory of the origin of the same animals, the flying squirrels and Galeopithecus (Origin of Species, 5th edition, New York, pp. 173–174), and see how he invokes the Lamarckian factors of change of “climate and vegetation” and “changing conditions of life,” to originate the variations before natural selection can act. His account is a mixture of Lamarckism with the added Darwinian factors of competition and natural selection. We agree with this view, that the change in environment and competition sets the ball in motion, the work being finished by the selective process. The act of springing and the first attempts at flying also involve strong emotions and mental efforts, and it can hardly be denied that these Lamarckian factors came into continual play during the process of evolution of these flying creatures.
[190] This sagacious, though crude suggestion of the origin of birds and mammals from the reptiles is now, after the lapse of nearly a century, being confirmed by modern morphologists and palæontologists.
[191] Reproduced on [page 193].
[192] This is taken from my article, “Lamarck and Neo-lamarckianism,” in the Open Court, Chicago, February, 1897. Compare also “Darwin Wrong,” etc., by R. F. Licorish, M.D., Barbadoes, 1898, reprinted in Natural Science, April, 1899.
[193] Natural Selection, pp. 41–42.
[194] American Naturalist, 1891, p. 17.
CHAPTER XVIII
LAMARCK’S THEORY AS TO THE EVOLUTION OF MAN
Lamarck’s views on the origin of man are contained in his Recherches sur l’Organisation des Corps vivans (1802) and his Philosophie zoologique, published in 1809. We give the following literal translation in full of the views he presented in 1802, and which were probably first advanced in lectures to his classes.