AUGUST. 383 



adorn the fields and please the sight of man. Such ideas may 

 be occasionally introduced into one's writhigs as pleasing 

 poetical fancies, but they are not true philosophy. In the 

 following speculations I proceed upon the hypothesis, that in 

 everything which nature does for any species of plant or ani- 

 mal, she does for the particular advantage of the individual 

 or the species. I proceed on the assumption that nature 

 works, in all that has reference to the organization of a plant 

 or an animal, solely for the welfare and the preservation of 

 that plant or animal, and their respective species, and not for 

 the advantage of another : as a man builds a house with 

 windows, not for the sake of accommodating the sun, but for 

 the sake of affording the inhabitants the benefit of his light. 

 If we observe that a certain plant bears a flower with beauti- 

 ful forms. and hues, and with sweet odors, we are rational in 

 supposing that these forms, hues and odors are given it for 

 some purpose needful to itself or its species ; and not for the 

 benefit of the insects that may thereby be attracted to it, nor 

 for that of man, whose senses may be regaled by it. They 

 are an indispensable part of nature's arrangements for the 

 preservation of the individual or the perpetuation of the spe- 

 cies, and for these purposes alone. 



The honey in the nectary of the flower is a part of that 

 apparatus, which, in connection with the corolla and the es- 

 sences that emanate from the flower, nature has provided for 

 the perpetuation of the species, by securing the cooperation 

 of insects in the work of fertilizing the blossom. But the 

 honey in the nectary of the flower, though placed there to 

 entice the bees and other insects, is not designed for the special 

 good of these insects, but to cause them to perform an act of 

 special benefit to the flower or the plant. The honey being 

 placed there, nature then forms the bee with instruments for 

 obtaining the honey, and with an instinct that guides him to 

 it. But she places no burdens on one species for the mere 

 benefit of another. The different parts of the flower are evi- 

 dently arranged with reference to the development and per- 

 fection of the seeds and fruit ; and there is reason to believe 

 that the calyx, the corolla, the hues and fragrance and the 



