The Life of the Weevil 



If the Rhynchites and her competitors in 

 means of defence against the dangers of 

 asphyxia have taught themselves their trade 

 by degrees, by passing from an unsuccessful 

 to another, more satisfactory method; if 

 they are really the creatures of their achieve- 

 ments, do not let us hesitate, though we deal 

 a blow to our self-conceit: let us recognize 

 them as engineers capable of teaching a 

 lesson to our own graduates; let us acclaim 

 the microcephalous Weevil as a powerful 

 thinker, a wonderful inventor. 



You dare not go to that length; you prefer 

 to appeal to the hazards of chance. But 

 what a wretched resource is chance when we 

 are considering such rational contrivances! 

 As well throw the letters of the alphabet up 

 in the air and expect them to form a given 

 line of a poem as they fall! 



Instead of bamboozling our minds with 

 such tortuous conceptions, how much simpler 

 and above all how much more truthful to say : 



"Matter is governed by a sovereign 

 order." 



This is what the Sloe-weevil, in her 

 humble way, tells us. 



228 



