8o Instinct, 



Suppose we grant all this, as we are ready to do, 

 the wonder still remains that the axis was shorten- 

 ed and the leaf infolded and modified exactly as in 

 the operations of Instinct, to produce just the re- 

 s.ilt needed for the welfare of the tree as an individ- 

 ual or member of a species — to say nothing of the 

 original production of the axis and leaf to be so 

 modified. 



In the bodies of animals the ministration of 

 this selecting and arranging power as manifested 

 by the function of organs, is of the same kind as 

 seen in plants, but the operations are more rapid, 

 more complicated and wonderful. In the full grown 

 animal we have a machine, and the higher the ani- 

 mal the more diverse the parts and complex the 

 machine. The parts are made of different materials 

 and diverse in form, but all nicely adjusted to each 

 other for a purpose — or for many subordinate pur- 

 poses, to secure the highest perfection of the individ- 

 ual and the continuance of the species. The body 

 of man or of one of the higher animals impresses us 

 at once as a work of design, but of such design as 

 we see accomplished by Instinct. We can trace 

 the whole process by which the body of any of our 

 higher animals is built up. And we see the same 

 sort of contrivance in the formation of parts, wis- 

 dom in selecting materials, and the same sort of skill 

 in manipulating them that we see in the operation 

 of the highest Instinct among bees and birds in the 

 construction of honey-comb and nests. The grow- 

 ing of this machine, after it is once formed with its 



