[114] On the Origin of Species, page 81.  Fifth edition.

[115] On the Origin of Species.  The text is—­“the necessary series of facts;” but it would be to do the writer wrong to impute to him the idea that observation reveals to us what is necessary, in the philosophical import of the word.

[116] On the Origin of Species.

[117] Caro, L’Idee de Dieu, page 47.

[118] Force et Matiere, page 181.

[119] The Buechner proceeding is found again pretty exactly in Les Mondes of M. Amedee Guillemin.  This writer affirms (page 60 of the third edition) that science does not approach metaphysical questions; and asserts in the same page, ten lines further on, that astronomical experience leads our reason to the idea of the eternity of the universe.  After that, he may laugh, if he will, at lovers of the absolute.

[120] See in particular the Revue des Deux Mondes, passim.

[121] S’enivrait en marchant du plaisir de la voir.

[122] See the lecture above mentioned.

[123] Lettres sur les Etats-Unis d’Amerique, by Lieutenant-Colonel Ferri Pisani, page 400.—­Letter of 25 Sept. 1861.

[124] On the origin of species, in the Archives des sciences de la Bibliotheque universelle, March, 1860.

[125] Vous coulez des moucherons.

[126] In his Principes de philosophie zoologique, a collection of answers made by Geoffroy, in the discussions of the Academie des Sciences, in 1830.

[127] Voyons, Messieurs, le temps ne fait rien a l’affaire.

[128]

     Sur cent premiers peuples celebres,
       J’ai plonge cent peuples fameux,
     Dans un abime de tenebres
       Ou vous disparaitrez comme eux. 
     J’ai couvert d’une ombre eternelle
       Des astres eteints dans leur cours. 
     —­Ah! par pitie, lui dit ma belle,
       Vieillard, epargnez nos amours!

[129] Esprit des Lois, Bk.  I. chap. 1.

[130] Lecons sur l’homme, by Carl Vogt (lectures delivered during the winter of 1862-1863, at Neuchatel and at Chaux-de-Fonds), 1 vol. 8vo.  Paris, 1865.—­L’Homme et le Singe, by Frederic de Rougemont, pamphlet, 12mo.  Neuchatel, 1863.

LECTURE V.

HUMANITY.

(At Geneva, 1st.  Dec., 1863.)

GENTLEMEN,

Man has need of God.  If he be not fallen into the most abject degradation, he does not succeed in extinguishing the instinct which leads him to inquire after his Creator.  A false wisdom labors to still the cravings which the truth alone can satisfy; but false wisdom remains powerless, and betrays itself continually by some outrageous contradiction.  Here is a curious example of this: