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See also:LAMARCK, , See also:JEAN See also:BAPTISTE See also:PIERRE See also:ANTOINE DE See also:MONET, See also:CHEVALIER DE (1744-1829), See also:French naturalist, was See also:born on the 1st of See also:August 1744, at Bazantin, a See also:village of See also:Picardy. He was an See also:eleventh See also:child; and his See also:father, See also:lord of the See also:manor and of old See also:family, but of limited means, having placed three sons in the See also:army, destined this one for the See also: This work, which went through several See also:editions and See also:long kept the See also: His endeavours at See also:classification of the See also:great See also:groups were necessarily defective on See also:account of the imperfect knowledge possessed in his See also:time in regard to many of them, e.g. echinoderms, ascidians and intestinal See also:worms; yet they are not without See also:interest, particularly on account of the comprehensive See also:attempt to unite in one great See also:division as See also:Articulata all those groups that appeared to See also:present a segmented construction. Moreover, Lamarck was the first to distinguish vertebrate from invertebrate animals by the presence of a vertebral See also:column, and among the Invertebrata to found the groups See also:Crustacea, See also:Arachnida and See also:Annelida. In 1785 (Hist, del'Acad.) he evinced his appreciation of the See also:necessity of natural orders in botany by an attempt at the classification of See also:plants, interesting, though crude and falling immeasurably See also:short of the system which See also:grew in the hands of his intimate friend A. L. de See also:Jussieu. The problem of taxonomy has never been put more philosophically than he subsequently put it in his Animaux sans vertebres: " What arrangement must be given to the See also:general See also:distribution of animals to make it conformable to the See also:order of nature in the See also:production of these beings?" The most prominent defect in Lamarck must be admitted to have been want of See also:control in See also:speculation. Doubtless the speculative tendency furnished a powerful incentive to work, but it outran the legitimate deductions from observation, and led him into the production of volumes of worthless See also:chemistry without experimental basis, as well as into spending much time on fruitless meteorological predictions. His Annuaires Meteorologiques were published yearly from 'Soo to 181o, and were not discontinued until after an unnecessarily public and brutal tirade from See also:Napoleon, administered on the occasion of being presented with one of his works on natural history. To the general reader the name of Lamarck is chiefly interesting on account of his theory of the origin of life and of the diversities of See also:animal forms. The See also:idea, which appears to have been favoured by Buffon before him, that species were not through all time unalterable, and that the more complex might have been See also:developed from pre-existent simpler forms, became with Lamarck a belief or, as he imagined, a demonstration. Spontaneous See also:generation, he considered, might be easily conceived as resulting from such agencies as See also:heat and See also:electricity causing in small gelatinous bodies an utricular structure, and inducing a " singular tension," a kind of " erethisme " or " orgasme "; and, having thus accounted for the first See also:appearance of life, he explained the whole organization of animals and formation of different See also:organs by four See also:laws (introduction to his Histoire naturelle des animaux sans vertebres, 1815):- I. " Life by its proper forces tends continually to increase the volume of every body possessing it, and to enlarge its parts, up to a limit which it brings about. 2. " The production of a new See also:organ in an animal body results from the supervention of a new want (besoin) continuing to make itself See also:felt, and a new See also:movement which this want gives See also:birth to and encourages. 3. " The development of organs and their force of See also:action are constantly in ratio to the emplcyrnent of these organs. 4. " All which has been acquired, laid down, or changed in the organization of individuals in the course of their life is conserved by generation and transmitted to the new individuals which proceed from those which have undergone those changes.' The second See also:law is often referred to as Lamarck's See also:hypothesis of the See also:evolution of organs in animals by appetence or longing, although he does not See also:teach that the animal's desires affect its conformation directly, but that altered wants See also:lead to altered habits, which result in the formation of new organs as well as in modification, growth or dwindling of those previously existing. Thus, he suggests that, ruminants being pursued by See also:carnivora, their legs have grown slender; and, their legs being only See also:fit for support, while their jaws are weak, they have made attack with the See also:crown of the head, and the determination of fluids thither has led to the growth of horns. So also the stretching of the See also:giraffe's neck to reach the foliage he supposes to have led to its See also:elongation; and the See also:kangaroo, sitting upright to support the young in its pouch, he imagines to have had its fore-limbs dwarfed by disuse, and its See also:hind legs and tail exaggerated by using them in leaping. The See also:fourth law expresses the See also:inheritance of acquired characters, which is denied by August See also:Weismann and his followers. For a more detailed account of Lamarck's place in the history of the See also:doctrine of evolution, see EvoLuT'oN. LA MARGHERITA, CLEMENTE SOLARO, See also:COUNT DEL (1792–'869), Piedmontese statesman, was born at See also:Mondovi. He studied law at See also:Siena and See also:Turin, but See also:Piedmont was at that time under French domination, and being devoted to the See also:house of See also:Savoy he refused to take his degree, as this proceeding would have obliged him to recognize the authority of the usurper; after the restoration of the Sardinian See also:kingdom, however, he graduated. In '8'6 he entered the See also:diplomatic service. Later 4 returned to Turin, and succeeded in gaining the confidence and esteem of King See also: In this capacity he modified the scope of the September See also:Convention by a See also:note in which he claimed for Italy full freedom of action in respect of See also:national aspirations to the See also:possession of See also:Rome, a document of which See also:Visconti Venosta afterwards took See also:advantage when justifying the Italian occupation of Rome in '87o. In See also:April 1866 La Marmora concluded an See also:alliance with See also:Prussia against Austria, and, on the outbreak of war in See also:June, took command of an army See also:corps, but was defeated at See also:Custozza on the 23rd of June. Accused of See also:treason by his See also:fellow-countrymen, and of duplicity by the Prussians, he eventually published in See also:defence of his See also:tactics (1873) a See also:series of documents entitled Un po' piic di luce sugli eventi dell' See also:anno 1866 (More See also:light on the events of '866) a step which caused irritation in See also:Germany, and exposed him to the See also:charge of having violated See also:state secrets. Meanwhile he had been sent to Paris in '867 to oppose the French expedition to Rome, and in 1870, after the occupation of Rome by the Italians, had been appointed lieutenant-royal of the new See also:capital. He died at See also:Florence on the 5thof See also:January '878. La Marmora's writings include Un episodio del risorgimento italiano (Florence, 1875); and I segreti di stato nel governo constituzionale (Florence, '877).
See G. Massani, Il generale Alfonso La Marmora (Milan, 188o). LAMARTINE, See also:ALPHONSE See also:MARIE See also: Lamartine's early See also:education was received from his See also:mother. He was sent to school at See also:Lyons in '8o5, but not being happy there was transferred to the care of the Peres de la Foi at See also:Belley, where he remained until 1809. For some time afterwards he lived at See also:home, See also:reading romantic and poetical literature, but in 1811 he set out for Italy, where he seems to have sojourned nearly two years. His family having been steady royalists, he entered the Gardes du corps at the return of the Bourbons, and during the See also:Hundred Days he sought See also:refuge first in See also:Switzerland and then at See also:Aix-en-See also:Savoie, where he See also:fell in love, with abundant results of the poetical kind. After See also:Waterloo he re-turned to Paris. In '8'8–'8'9 he revisited Switzerland, Savoy and Italy, the death of his beloved affording him new subjects for See also:verse. After some difficulties he had his first See also:book, the Meditations; poetiques et religieuses, published (1820). It was exceedingly popular, and helped him to make a position. He had left the army for some time; he now entered the diplomatic service and was appointed secretary to the See also:embassy at Naples. On his way to his See also:post he married, in 1823, at See also:Geneva a young See also:English lady, Marianne See also:Birch, who had both See also:money and beauty, and in the same year his Nouvelles meditations poetiques appeared. In 1824 he was transferred to Florence, where he remained five years. His Last See also:Canto of Childe Harold appeared in 1825, and he had to fight a See also:duel (in which he was wounded) with an Italian officer, Colonel See also:Pepe, in consequence of a phrase in it. Charles X., on whose See also:coronation he wrote a poem, gave him the order of the See also:Legion of Honour. The Harmonies poetiques et religieuses appeared in 1829, when he had left Florence. Having refused an appointment in Paris under the See also:Polignac See also:ministry, he went on a See also:special See also:mission to See also:Prince See also:Leopold of See also:Saxe-See also:Coburg. In the same year he was elected to the Academy. Lamartine was in Switzer-See also:land, not in Paris, at the time of the Revolution of July, and, though he put forth a pamphlet on " Rational Policy," he did not at that crisis take any active part in politics, refusing, however, to continue his diplomatic services under the new See also:government. In 1832 he set out with his wife and daughter for See also:Palestine, having been unsuccessful in his candidature for a seat in the chamber. His daughter Julia died at See also:Beirut, and before long he received the See also:news of his See also:election by a See also:constituency (See also:Bergues) in the department of the See also:Nord. He returned through See also:Turkey and Germany, and made his first speech shortly after the beginning of 1834. Thereafter he spoke constantly, and acquired considerable reputation as an orator,—bringing out, moreover, many books in See also:prose and verse. His Eastern travels (Voyage en Orient) appeared in '835, his Chute d'un ange and Jocelyn in 1837, and his Recueillements, the last remarkable volume of his See also:poetry, in 1839. As the reign of Louis Philippe went on, Lamartine, who had previously been a liberal royalist, something after the See also:fashion of See also:Chateaubriand, became more and more democratic in his opinions. He set about his greatest prose work, ' the Histoire des Girondins, which at first appeared periodically, and was published as a whole in 1847. Like many other French histories, it was a pamphlet as well as a See also:chronicle, and the subjects of Lamartine's See also:pen became his See also:models in politics.
At the revolution of February Lamartine was one of the first to declare for a provisional government, and became a member of it, with the post of minister for foreign affairs. He was elected for the new constituent See also:assembly in ten different departments, and was chosen one of the five members of the Executive See also:Committee. For a few months indeed Lamartine, from being a
Romantic revival, but he went far in that direction. He availed himself of the reviving interest in legitimism and Catholicism which was represented by See also:Bonald and See also:Joseph de See also:Maistre, of the nature See also:worship of See also: Lamartine's See also:chief misfortune in poetry was not only that his note was a somewhat weak one, but that he could strike but one. The four volumes of the Meditations, the Harmonies and the Recueillements, which contained the See also:prime of his verse, are perhaps the most monotonous reading to be found anywhere in work of equal bulk by a poet of equal See also:talent. They contain nothing but meditative lyrical pieces, almost any one of which is typical of the whole, though there is considerable variation of merit. The two narrative poems which succeeded the early lyrics, Jocelyn and the Chute d'un ange, were, according to Lamartine's original See also:plan, parts of a vast " Epic of the Ages," some further fragments of which survive. Jocelyn had at one time more popularity in See also:England than most French verse. La Chute d'un ange, in which the Byronic See also:influence is more obvious than in any other of Lamartine's works, and in which some have also seen that of See also:Alfred de See also:Vigny, is more ambitious in theme, and less regulated by scrupulous conditions of delicacy in handling, than most of its author's poetry. It does, however, little more than prove that such audacities were not for him.
As a prose writer Lamartine was very fertile. His characteristics in his prose fiction and descriptive work are not very different from those of his poetry. He is always and everywhere sentimental, though very frequently, as in his shorter prose tales (The See also: In his histories proper the special See also:motive for embellishment disappears, but the See also:habit of in-accuracy remains. As an historian he belongs exclusively to the rhetorical school as distinguished from the philosophical on the one See also:hand and the documentary on the other. It is not surprising when these characteristics of Lamartine's work are appreciated to find that his fame declined with singular rapidity in See also:France. As a poet he had lost his reputation many years before he died. He was entirely eclipsed by the brilliant and vigorous school who succeeded him with See also:Victor See also:Hugo at their head. His See also:power of initiative in poetry was very small, and the range of poetic ground which he could See also:cover strictly limited. He could only carry the picturesque sentimentalism of Rousseau, Bernardin de Saint Pierre and Chateaubriand a little farther, and clothe it in See also:language and verse a little less antiquated than that of See also:Chenedolle and Millevoye. He has been said to be a French See also:Cowper, and the parallel holds good in respect of versification and of his relative position to the more daringly innovating school that followed, though not in respect of individual peculiarities. Lamartine in short occupied a kind of See also:half-way house between the 18th See also:century and the Romantic movement, and he never got any farther. When See also:Matthew See also:Arnold questioned his importance in conversation with Sainte-Beuve, the See also:answer was, " He is important to us," and it was a true answer; but the See also:limitation is obvious. In more See also:recent years, however, efforts have been made by Brunetiere and others to remove it. The usual revolution of See also:critical as of other See also:taste, the oblivion of personal and political unpopularity, and above all the reaction against Hugo and the extreme Romantics, have been the main agents in this. Lamartine has been extolled as a See also:pattern of combined See also:passion and See also:restraint, as a See also:model of See also:nobility of sentiment, and as a harmonizer of pure French classicism in taste and expression with much, if not all, the better part of Romanticism itself. These oscillations of See also:opinion are frequent, if not universal, and it is only after more than one or two swings that the pendulum remains at the perpendicular. The above remarks are an attempt to correct extravagance in either direction. But it is difficult to believe that Lamartine can ever permanently take rank among the first order of poets. The edition mentioned is the most See also:complete one of Lamartine, but there are many issues of his See also:separate works. After his death some poems and Memoires inedits of his youth were published, and also two volumes of See also:correspondence, while in 1893 Mlle V. de Lamartine added a volume of Lettres to him. The See also:change of views above referred to may be studied in the detached articles of MM. Brunetiere, distinguished See also:man of letters, an See also:official of inferior rank in diplo- revolution. Lamartine did not himself go the complete length of the macy, and an eloquent but unpractical See also:speaker in parliament, became one of the foremost men in Europe. His inexperience in the routine work of government, the utterly unpractical nature of his colleagues, and the turbulence of the Parisian See also:mob, proved fatal to his chances. He gave some proofs of statesman-like ability, and his eloquence was repeatedly called into requisition to pacify the Parisians. But no one can permanently carry on the government of a great See also:country by speeches from the See also:balcony of a house in the capital, and Lamartine found himself in a See also:dilemma. So long as he held aloof from Ledru-See also:Rollin and the more See also:radical of his colleagues, the disunion resulting weakened the government; as soon as he effected an approximation to them the See also:middle classes fell off from him. The quelling of the insurrection of the 15th of May was his last successful See also:act. A See also:month later the renewal of active disturbances brought on the fighting of June, and Lamartine's influence was extinguished in favour of See also:Cavaignac. Moreover, his See also:chance of renewed political pre-See also:eminence was gone. He had been tried and found wanting, having neither the virtues nor the vices of his situation. In January 1849, though he was nominated for the See also:presidency, only a few thousand votes were given to him, and three months later he was not even elected to the Legislative Assembly. The remaining See also:story of Lamartine's life is somewhat See also:melancholy. He had never been a See also:rich man, nor had he been a saving one, and during his period of popularity and office he had incurred great expenses. He now set to work to repair his See also:fortune by unremitting See also:literary labour. He brought out in the Presse (1849) a series of Confidences, and somewhat later a kind of autobiography, entitled See also:Raphael. He wrote several See also:historical works of more or less importance, the History of the Revolution of 1848, The History of the Restoration, The History of Turkey, The History of See also:Russia, besides a large number of small See also:biographical and See also:miscellaneous works. In 1858 a subscription was opened for his benefit. Two years afterwards, following the example of Chateaubriand, he supervised an elaborate edition of his own works in See also:forty-one volumes. This occupied five years, and while he was engaged on it his wife died (1863). He was now over seventy; his See also:powers had deserted him, and even if they had not the public taste had entirely changed. His efforts had not succeeded in placing him in a position of See also:independence; and at last, in 1867, the government of the See also:Empire (from which he had perforce stood aloof, though he never considered it necessary to adopt the active protesting attitude of See also:Edgar See also:Quinet and Victor Hugo) came to his assistance, a See also:vote of £2o,000 being proposed in April of that year for his benefit by Emile 011ivier. This was creditable to both parties, for Lamartine, both as a distinguished man of letters and as a past servant of the state, had every claim to the See also:bounty of his country. But he was reproached for accepting it by the extreme republicans and irreconcilables. He did not enjoy it long, dying on the 28th of February 1869. .. As a statesman Lamartine was placed during his brief See also:tenure of office in a position from which it would have been almost impossible for any man, who was not prepared and able to See also:play the See also:dictator, to emerge with See also:credit. At no time in history were unpractical crotchets so rife in the heads of men as in 1848. But Lamartine could hardly have guided the See also:ship of state safely even in much calmer See also:weather. He was amiable and even estimable, the chief See also:fault of his character being vanity and an incurable tendency towards theatrical effect, which makes his travels, memoirs and other personal records as well as his historical works radically untrustworthy. Nor does it appear that he had any settled political ideas. He did good by moderating the revolutionary and destructive ardour of the Parisian populace in 1848; but he had been perhaps more responsible than any other single See also:person for bringing about the events of that year by the vague and frothy republican declamation of his Histoire des Girondins. More must be said of his literary position. Lamartine had the ad-vantage of coming at a time when the literary field, at least in the departments of belles lettres, was almost empty. The feeble school of descriptive writers, epic poets of the extreme decadence, fabulists and miscellaneous verse-makers, which the Empire had nourished could satisfy no one. Madame de Stael was dead; Chateaubriand, though alive, was something of a classic, and had not effected a full See also:Faguet, See also:Lemaitre, &c., and in the more substantive work of Ch. de Pomairols, Lamartixze (1889); E. See also:Deschanel, Lamartine (1893); E. Zyrowski, Lamartine (1896) ; and perhaps best of all in the See also:Preface to Emile Legouis' See also:Clarendon See also:Press edition of Jocelyn (1906), where a vigorous effort is made to combat the idea of Lamartine's sentimentality and femininity as a poet. (G. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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