108 SPECIES NOT 



sizes, from the Psyche up to Nyssia. Now 

 why should this be so? Why should some of 

 these female moths have wings, while others are 

 entirely apterous? And why is the instinct of 

 the male moth so unerringly correct in leading 

 him to the resting-place of his mate? Mr. Dar- 

 win may call these variations accidental alterations, 

 which have been perpetuated for the "good" of 

 the insect by "natural selection," etc. 



For my part, I should conceive such an expla- 

 nation to be not only bordering upon impiety, but 

 in the highest degree improbable, and quite as 

 unlikely to be the true one, as that the same 

 law first gave a bird wings, and then deprived 

 it of them by natural selection. I see nothing 

 in nature so bungling and slovenly as this. 1 

 observe the most perfect harmony in all she 

 does; and if in some instances I cannot under- 

 stand what I see, I am content to place this 

 to the account of that imperfection which must 

 ever be attached to a finite mind, when it 

 attempts to unravel the mysteries of the infinite. 



Acclimatization is dismissed in a few words. 

 Mr. Darwin considers that the period of flowering, 

 the amount of rain required for the germination 

 of the seed, and the sleep of plants, is due to 

 "hereditary habit," a statement certainly not less 

 extraordinary than a hundred others in this very 

 extraordinary work. Fancy a ilrnver getting a 

 "habit" of shutting its petals, and going to sleep 

 at a certain hour every day, irrespective of 

 weather! I confess that when, as I have often 



