154 THE EVOLUTIONIST AT LARGE. 



machinery, may it not be true at the same 

 time that he is, viewed emotionally, a faint 

 copy of ourselves ? 



Here he stands on a purple thistle again, 

 true, as usual, to the plant on which I last 

 found him. There can be no doubt that he 

 distinguishes one colour from another, for you 

 can artificially attract him by putting a piece 

 of purple paper on a green leaf, just as the 

 flower naturally attracts him with its native 

 hue. Numerous observations and experi- 

 ments have proved v.'ith all but absolute cer- 

 tainty that his discrimination of colour is 

 essentially identical with our own ; and I think, 

 if we run our eye up and down nature, ob- 

 serving how universally all animals are at- 

 tracted by pure and bright colours, we can 

 hardly doubt that he appreciates and ad- 

 mires colour as well as discriminates it. Mr. 

 Darwin certainly judges that butterflies can 

 show an aesthetic preference of the sort, for 

 he sets down their own lovely hues to the 

 constant sexual selection of the handsomest 



