INSTINCTS OF NEUTER INSECTS. 225 



caterpillar simply re-performed the fourth, fifth, and 

 sixth stages of construction. If, however, a caterpillar 

 were taken out of a hammock made up, for instance, to 

 the third stage, and were put into one finished up to the 

 sixth stage, so that much of its work was already done 

 for it, far from deriving any benefit from this, it was 

 much embarrassed, and in order to complete its ham- 

 mock, seemed forced to start from the third stage, where 

 it had left off, and thus tried to complete the already 

 finished work." 



I see I must have unconsciously taken my first 

 chapter from this passage, but it is immaterial. I owe 

 Mr. Darwin much more than this. I owe it to him that 

 I believe in evolution at all. I owe him for almost all 

 the facts which have led me to differ from him, and 

 which I feel absolutely safe in taking for granted, if 

 he has advanced them. Nevertheless, I believe that 

 the conclusion arrived at in the passage which I will 

 next quote is a mistaken one, and that not a little 

 only, but fundamentally. I shall therefore venture to 

 dispute it. 



The passage runs : — 



"If we suppose any habitual action to become in- 

 herited — and it can be shown that this does sometimes 

 happen — then the resemblance between what originally 

 was a habit and an instinct becomes so close as not to 

 be distinguished. . . . But it would be a serious error to 

 suppose that the greater number of instincts have been 

 acquired by habit in one generation, and then transmitted 

 by inheritance to succeeding generations. It can be clearly 

 shown that the most wonderful instincts with which we 



