270 CREATION BY LAW. 



maintains that no explanation of these " contrivances " 

 has been or can be given, except on the supposition of 

 a personal contriver, specially arranging the details of 

 each case, although causing them to be produced by 

 the ordinary processes of growth and reproduction. 



Now there is a difficulty in this view of the origin 

 of the structure of Orchids which the Duke does not 

 allude to. The majority of flowering plants are fer- 

 tilized, either without the agency of insects or, when 

 insects are required, without any very important modi- 

 fication of the structure of the flower. It is evident, 

 therefore, that flowers might have been formed as 

 varied, fantastic, and beautiful as the Orchids, and yet 

 have been fertilized without more complexity of struc- 

 ture than is found in Violets, or Clover, or Primroses, 

 or a thousand other flowers. The strange springs 

 and traps and pitfalls found in the flowers of Orchids 

 cannot be necessary per se, since exactly the same end 

 is gained in ten thousand other flowerg which do not 

 possess them. Is it not then an extraordinary idea, 

 to imagine the Creator of the Universe contriving the 

 various complicated parts of these flowers, as a me- 

 chanic might contrive an ingenious toy or a difficult 

 puzzle? Is it not a more worthy conception that they 

 are some of the results of those general laws which 

 were so co-ordinated at the first introduction of life 

 upon the earth as to result necessarily in the utmost 

 possible development of varied forms ? 



But let us take one of the simpler cases adduced 

 and see if our general laws are unable to account for it. 



