And through a whole series of amalgams, metaphors, and inadequately tested analogies, the outline emerges of a 'reactionary' system of thought which clings passionately to the immobility of things in order to preserve the precarious order of human life; this, it is claimed, is the philosophy of Cuvier, the man possessed of all the powers; opposite is depicted the difficult destiny of a progressive system of thought which believes in the energy of movement, in ceaseless renewal, in the vitality of adaptation: Lamarck, the revolutionary, is supposed to be in this camp.