u observe in the different orders which comprise this great
series a gradation, shaded (_nuance_), although irregular, in the
composition of the organization and in the increasing number of
faculties, is it not evident that in the case where nature would
exert some active power on the existence of these organized bodies
she has been able to make them exist only by beginning with the most
simple, and that she has been able to form directly among the
animals only that which I call the rough sketches or germs
(_ebauches_) of animality--that is to say, only these animalcules,
almost invisible and to some extent without consistence, that we see
develop spontaneously and in an astonishing abundance in certain
places and under certain circumstances, while only in contrary
circumstances are they totally destroyed?

"Do we not therefore perceive that by the action of the laws of
organization, which I have just now indicated, and by that of
different means of multiplication which are due to them (_qui en
derivent_), nature has in favorable times, places, and climates
multiplied her first germs (_ebauches_) of animality, given place to
developments of their organizations, rendered gradually greater the
duration of those which have originally descended from them, and
increased and diversified their organs? Then always preserving the
progress acquired by the reproductions of individuals and the
succession of generations, and aided by much time and by a slow but
constant diversity of circumstances, she has gradually brought about
in this respect the state of things which we now observe.

"How grand is this consideration, and especially how remote is it
from all that is generally thought on this subject! Moreover, the
astonishment which its novelty and its singularity may excite in you
requires that at first you should suspend your judgment in regard to
it. But the observation which establishes it is now on record
(_consignee_), and the facts which support it exist and are
incessantly renewed; however, as they open a vast field to your
studies and to your own researches, it is to you yourselves that I
appeal to pronounce on this great subject when you have sufficiently
examined and followed all the facts which relate to it.

"If among living bodies there are any the consideration of whose
organization and of the phenomena which they produce can enlighten
us a