CHAP. XL] AN EPISODE. 347 



these two great genera come subordinate distinctions of dif 

 ferent degrees of importance. Now a naturalist may attain 

 great scientific eminence without being anything of a phi 

 losopher, and similarly a philosopher need have little ac 

 quaintance with physical science, but from the nature of 

 their respective pursuits a different character of mind tends 

 to be developed. It is from this distinction that we find (as 

 we might a priori expect to be the case) such breadth of 

 view, freedom of handling, and flexibility of mind on the 

 part of philosophers who are not naturalists as compared 

 with men great in physical science, who are not at the same 

 time philosophers ; a certain rigidity and narrowness seeming 

 to result from the exercise of the mind merely in the arena 

 of physics. 



&quot; Passing to details of criticism, Mr. Wright proceeds to 

 consider the question of the giraffe s neck, and I Thegiraffe . 8 

 am asked a rather startling question : Can Mr. neck - 

 Mivart suppose that, having fairly called in question the 

 importance of the high-feeding use of the giraffe s neck, he 

 has thereby destroyed the utility of the neck altogether, not 

 only to the theory of Natural Selection, but also to the animal 

 itself? At the first glance this looks as if I had brought 

 myself within the grasp of the Society for the Prevention of 

 Cruelty to Animals. But I may, perhaps, be permitted to 

 ask, in return, can Mr. Wright suppose that I ever dreamed 

 that the structures of animals are not useful to them, or that 

 my position is an altogether anti-teleological one ? Appa 

 rently possessed with some such idea, Mr. Wright proceeds 

 to exhibit the giraffe s neck in the character of a watch- 

 tower. But this leaves the question just where it was before. 

 Of course I concede most readily and fully that it is a most 

 admirable watch-tower, as it also is a most admirable high- 

 reaching organ, but this tells us nothing of its origin. In 

 both cases the long neck is most useful when you have got it ; 

 but the question is how it arose, and in this species alone. 

 And similar and as convincing arguments could be brought 

 against the watch-tower theory of origin as against the high- 



