WHAT IS DARWINISM? 97 



labellum is developed in oi^der to attract the 

 Lepidoptera ; and we shall soon see reason for 

 supposing that the nectar is purposely so 

 lodged, that it can be sucked only slowly in 

 order to give time for the curious chemical 

 quality of the matter setting hard and dry.' " ^ 

 We have already seen that Mr. Darwin's an- 

 swer to this objection is, that it is hard to keep 

 from personifying nature, and that these ex- 

 pressions as used by him mean no more than 

 chemists mean when they speak of affinities, 

 and one element preferring another. 



A second objection is, that a variation would 

 not be useful to the individual in which it hap- 

 pens to occur, unless other variations should 

 occur at the right time and in the right order ; 

 and that the concurrence of so many accidents 

 as are required to account for the infinite di- 

 versity of forms in plants and animals, is alto- 

 gether inconceivable. 



A third objection is, that the variations often 

 have no reference to the organism of the ani- 

 mal itself but to other organisms. " Take one 

 instance," he says, " out of millions. The 

 poison of a deadly snake, — let us for a mo- 

 ment consider what that is. It is a secretion 



1 Reign of Lnw. London, 1867, p. 40. 



