[903] Lamarck Hist. Nat. des Anim. sans Vertèbr. i. 311, 214.
[904] Ibid. 162. Compare the Systême des Anim. sans Vertèbr. of the same author, p. 12—.
[905] The doctrine of Epicurus—that the Deity concerns not himself with the affairs of the world or its inhabitants, which, as Cicero has judiciously observed (De Nat. Deor. 1. 1. ad calcem), while it acknowledges a God in words, denies him in reality; has furnished the original stock upon which most of these bitter fruits of modern infidelity are grafted. Nature, in the eyes of a large proportion of the enemies of Revelation, occupies the place and does the work of its Great Author. Thus Hume, when he writes against miracles, appears to think that the Deity has delegated some or all of his powers to nature, and will not interfere with that trust. Essays, ii. 75—. And to name no more, Lamarck, treading in some measure in the steps of Robinet (who supposes that all the links of the animal kingdom, in which nature gradually ascends from low to high, were experiments in her progress towards her great and ultimate aim—the formation of man. Barclay On Organization, &c. 263), thus states his opinion: "La nature, dans toutes ses opérations, ne pouvant procéder que graduellement, n'a pu produire tous les animaux à-la-fois: elle n'a d'abord formé que les plus simples; et passant de ceux-ci jusques aux plus composés, elle a établi successivement en eux différens systêmes d'organes particuliers, les a multipliés, en a augmenté de plus en plus l'énergie, et, les cumulant dans les plus parfaits, elle a fait exister tous les animaux connus avec l'organisation et les facultés que nous leur observons." (Anim. sans Vertèbr. i. 123.) Thus denying to the Creator the glory of forming those works of creation, the animal and vegetable kingdom (for he assigns to both the same origin, Ibid. 83), in which his glorious attributes are most conspicuously manifested; and ascribing them to nature, or a certain order of things, as he defines it (214)—a blind power, that operates necessarily (311); which he admits, however, to be the product of the will of the Supreme Being (216). It is remarkable, that in his earlier works, in which he broaches a similar opinion, we find no mention of a Supreme Being. (See his Systême des Animaux sans Vertèbres, Discours d'Ouverture.) Thus we may say that, like his forerunner Epicurus, Re tollit, dum oratione relinquit Deum. But though he ascribes all to nature; yet as the immediate cause of all the animal forms, he refers to the local circumstances, wants, and habits of individual animals themselves; these he regards as the modifiers of their organization and structure (162). To show the absurd nonplus to which this his favourite theory has reduced him, it will only be necessary to mention the individual instances which in different works he adduces to exemplify it. In his Systême, he supposes that the web-footed birds (Anseres) acquired their natatory feet by frequently separating their toes as far as possible from each other in their efforts to swim. Thus the skin that unites these toes at their base contracted a habit of stretching itself; and thus in time the web-foot of the duck and the goose were produced. The waders (Grallæ), which, in order to procure their food, must stand in the water, but do not love to swim, from their constant efforts to keep their bodies from submersion, were in the habit of always stretching their legs with this view, till they grew long enough to save them the trouble!!! (13—). How the poor birds escaped drowning before they had got their web feet and long legs, the author does not inform us. In another work, which I have not now by me, I recollect he attributes the long neck of the camelopard to its efforts to reach the boughs of the mimosa, which, after the lapse of a few thousand years, it at length accomplished!!! In his last work, he selects as an example one of the Molluscæ, which, as it moved along, felt an inclination to explore by means of touch the bodies in its path: for this purpose it caused the nervous and other fluids to move in masses successively to certain points of its head, and thus in process of time it acquired its horns or tentacula!! Anim. sans Vertèbr. i. 188. It is grievous that this eminent zoologist, who in other respects stands at the head of his science, should patronize notions so confessedly absurd and childish.
[906] Lyonnet Traité, &c. Pref. xxii. Want of due encouragement, it is to be feared, caused the abortion of these valuable treatises. The MSS. are, I believe, still in existence. It would probably answer now to publish them.
[909] There are certain processes which are a continuation of the internal surface of the crust; and serve, as well as the rest of it, for points of attachment to the muscles: these, though completely internal, must be considered as parts of the external skeleton.
[911] The crust which covers the body of insects is lined internally with a kind of fibrous cuticle. Query, Whether in any degree analogous to the Periosteum of Vertebrate animals?