574: THE EVOLUTION OF LIFE. 



wasp. Several instincts, capacities, peculiarities, which are 

 in a sense independent though they cooperate to the same 

 end, are here displayed. There is the instinct to build a 

 cell of grains of sand, and the ability to do this, which though 

 in a sense separate may be regarded as an accompaniment; 

 and there is the secretion of a cement a physiological pro 

 cess not directly connected with the psychological process. 

 After oviposition there comes into play the instinct to seek, 

 carry home, and pack into the cell, the small caterpillars, 

 spiders, &c., which are to serve as food for the larva; and 

 then there is the instinct to sting each of them at a spot 

 where the injected hypnotic poison keeps the creature insen 

 sible though alive till it is wanted. These cannot be regarded 

 as parts of a whole developed in simultaneous coordination. 

 There is no direct connexion between the building instinct 

 and the hypnotizing instinct; still less between these in 

 stincts and the associated appliances. What were the early 

 stages they passed through imagination fails to suggest. 

 Their usefulness depends on their combination; and this 

 combination would seem to have been useless until they had 

 all reached something like their present completeness. Nor 

 can we in this case ascribe anything to the influence of teach 

 ing by imitation, supposed to explain the doings of social in 

 sects ; for the mason-wasp is solitary. 



Thus the process of organic evolution is far from being 

 fully understood. We can only suppose that as there are 

 devised by human beings many puzzles apparently unan 

 swerable till the answer is given, and many necromantic 

 tricks which seem impossible till the mode of performance is 

 shown; so there are apparently incomprehensible results 

 which are really achieved by natural processes. Or, other 

 wise, we must conclude that since Life itself proves to be in 

 its ultimate nature inconceivable, there is probably an incon 

 ceivable element in its ultimate workings. 



END OF VOL. I. 



