PROTRACTILE MOUTHS 



cases, share in the work of prehension. Teeth assume 

 a dominant place, and, according to the group, seize, 

 bite, cut up, or grind. Those of the carnivorous 

 mammals give to the " beast of prey " which possesses 

 and uses them the complete character which the name 

 seeks to express. 



When we regard the astounding multiplicity of 

 structure designed to fulfil a single function, how 

 unimportant seem the elaborate attempts to explain 

 it. The only useful work the naturalist should try to 

 perform is that of looking at Nature as she is, not as 

 he supposes her. Eternally at work, he must try to 

 understand her as a whole, try to look at her with 

 eyes ever new and always open, not to be content with 

 a restricted material vision which can be amplified by 

 theories. Nature brings into harmony her countless 

 subjects and allows us to realize some of the harmonies 

 that she creates. But we must avoid considering them 

 as being themselves alone able to express all her power, 

 for they are only fragments of a whole unknown to us. 

 To modify Pascal's saying, Nature has reasons of her 

 own, which our reason knows only in fragments, and 

 at odd moments. Before her splendour and her 

 activity, imagination is but idle and powerless. If we 

 are to know her, we must try to gather up all her 

 fragments and prolong all her moments. 



139 



