existing, he changes no more, as long as the conditions remain the same (121).

In all modifications of the established order of things, Species, fixed till then, may be, and often have been, changed. Let us go back to the epoch, when one of those grand movements took place, of which geology shows us the traces; by means of that law, of which we have established the bases, nothing can be more simple than to comprehend the effect of that new condition.'

'Les êtres les plus parfaits jusqu'alors se transformeront en jouissant de ce nouveau sol; ils acquerront un nouveau degré de perfection, supérieur à ce qui existait antérieurement; nouveau sol, nouveaux êtres' (122).

Of course, if M. Trémaux has laid it down as the basis of his law,' that the soil does transform animals, thus, when the soil is changed, new transformations may be expected. But, the basis' is simply assuming the proposition to be proved.

When Species are once formed, it requires particular conditions to bring to perfection the formation of a new Species; it is requisite that not only should the race, which is about to be formed, be isolated from the surplus of its Species; but that it should abide on one sort of soil only, and, moreover, that it should not be of a middle quality, as it would then tend to make the middle type (140).

If beings, which the soil tends to transform and ameliorate, continue to cross with those which belong to soils of less favoured nature, then it will only be able to effect a difference of variety.

If the crossings with the original Species are in any way prevented, the favoured Variety necessarily becomes Species, by continuing to transform itself (141).

*

To account for the lack of intermediate beings, which the records of geology cannot afford us, M. Trémaux affirms that the relative epoch of transformation was short [long, says Mr Darwin], that the grouping of distinct Species was soon effected, that the conditions for their geological preservation were unfavourable, because they were on a recent soil, or one subject to elevations and movements-these are the multiplied causes which render so difficult, and almost impossible, the discovery of the intermediate beings between the Species' (147).

And of these multiplied causes, we may safely say, that they are all visionary, and that every one of these 'conditions' is deduced from the imagination alone, without the support of any known fact. From anything that can appear to the contrary, conditions totally dissimilar are quite as probable, and, as some would say, much more probable. How does M. Trémaux know that the epoch of transformation was short, and that the grouping of distinct Species was soon effected? Mr Darwin would tell a very different story; though it must be freely confessed, that neither of these learned gentlemen can know anything at all about the matter.

The original Species (l'espèce mère) of man was, in the favoured regions, of a greater superiority relatively to the gorilla, than the white man is relatively to the negro: but that Species has disappeared before man, as the red skins of America disappear before the European colonies (258).

It is only in the regions the most favourable for him. that the primitive man could exist, more perfect than that

• Mr Darwin says, 'the process of Natural Selection is always extremely slow' (114). The disagreement of the Transmutationists on many essential points is very instructive.

which is now called the man of the woods.' M. Trémaux seems to think that it is not impossible to discover, in some regions of the earth, the being who may be considered as having been the most advanced during the epoch which preceded that of man (290).

This disappearance of anthropomorphous Species, proper to each soil, has made a wide gap between men and the quadrumanous animals. It has established that which is now called the human Species (290).

Men and apes resemble one another in their anatomical composition, which is in effect the only point which makes us recognize the common origin of these beings, since the difference of intellectual faculty is only the result of their different degrees of advancement and perfection, which are only secondary considerations (308).

The negro is a degenerate man, not an advanced ape: in the same way that the apes are degenerated from a more advanced Species, which, some time or other, occupied more favourable regions of the earth, and in the end gave birth to more perfect beings, which have formed the stock from which we have sprung (310).

On the whole, beings from their lowest point of separation, up to man, have been perfected by means of transformation from one Species to another (472).

It may, perhaps, be amusing to learn by what means the intelligence of apes was evoked, preparatory to their assuming the human form. The intelligence of the quadrumanes, which live in the trees, is kept on the watch; with their eyes they follow their enemies-they calculate— they reckon in a more continued and sustained manner the chances which are for or against them. They have even to foresee the strength of the branch which is to sus

tain them, and to take into consideration its elasticity which aids them in springing from one bough to another. One may conceive that this difference of state must induce a greater exercise of the mental faculties, than with some powerful animal which has less to fear, or with the burrowing animals which find their security in that concealment which deprives them of exercise '* (280).

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In this way our intellect began, our sylvan ancestors watched their enemies from the tops of the trees, and calculated the strength of the boughs on which they were about to leap. This was the commencement of calculation;' these faculties were more and more developed,' as the breed of anthropoidal animals improved with the soil, till the scale of being arrived at man, with whom every thing is done by calculation. He does not content himself with necessary speculations, he desires to know everything that surrounds him, even the stars, the past, the future, the infinite.' So, then, from the bough of a tree we leaped to the stars and the infinite! Who ever would have suspected that algebra and astronomy spring from an ape's lucubrations on the length of his leaps? But why such an origin of intellect should be confined to the anthropoidal animals is not apparent, seeing that the squirrel is equally watchful of his enemies, and equally sagacious in his leaps, and lives also on the trees. Who knows, but that squirrels may be developing into geometricians in some undiscovered forests of the favoured regions'!

An incidental argument introduced by M. Trémaux,

'Ces seules observations nous montrent quelles voies a dû prendre le règne de l'intelligence.

'Lorsque l'on arrive à l'homme, chez lequel tout se fait par calcul. Il ne se contente pas des speculations necessaires, il veut connaître tout ce qui l'entoure, les astres mêmes, le passé, l'avenir, l'infini.'

when discussing our relationship with apes should not be omitted. Why should we be astonished that the hand of an ape which serves him continually for seizing the branches, in leaping from one to the other, should differ in some degree from that of a man, which is used for such different purposes?' (319) So, then, the ape's hand was not invented and made for him to enable him to live a sylvan life amongst the trees, but by endeavouring to make use of it in leaping, it became what it is, and the ape himself became a quadrumanous animal! Our hands, also, have become human by applying them to multifarious purposes !

Here we have Lamarck again, animals making themselves what they are, by effort. But is not this, also, forgetting the great instrument of all changes, the soil? If a superior soil could make an ape of any sort, of course it could make it complete. If the soil has been the cause of the production of all species of animals, why create any difficulty about so small a matter as the formation of an ape's hand?

M. Trémaux has been more cautious than some of his school in giving the pedigree of animals; nevertheless, he has favoured us with a slight sketch, in such points as he says are very easy to be recognized (très-saisissable). The articulated animals descend by regular series to the worms, which are themselves intimately connected with the infusoria, the vertebrated are united by unmistakable connections with the fishes and the reptiles, and with these and the mammifers. To pass from these to birds, the degree of union is not so well sustained; nevertheless, we see it in the bats, and also in the penguins, which with their rudimentary wings serve as examples. These are pretty nearly all the details with which we are furnished,