The Hunting Wasps 



doubt, the organs that guide her. They do 

 not, in this case, act as olfactory instruments, 

 unless we admit that their dry and tough sur- 

 face, which has none of the delicate structure 

 required for the ordinary sense of smell, is 

 nevertheless capable of perceiving scents that 

 are non-existent to us. This would be equi- 

 valent to admitting that coarse tools tend to 

 perfection of work. Nor do they act as in- 

 struments of hearing, for there is no sound 

 to be discerned. What then is their func- 

 tion? I do not know and I despair of ever 

 knowing. 



Inclined as we are — and it could not well 

 be otherwise — to judge all things by our 

 standard, the only one in any way known to 

 us, we attribute to animals our own means of 

 perception and do not dream that they might 

 easily possess others of which it is impossible 

 for us to have an exact idea because there is 

 nothing like them in ourselves. Are we 

 quite certain that they are not equipped, in 

 very varying degrees, for the purpose of sen- 

 sations as foreign to ourselves as the sensa- 

 tion of colours would be if we were blind? 

 Has matter no secrets left for us? Are we 

 so very sure that it is revealed to the living 

 being only by light, sound, taste, smell and 

 378 



