The Young Queens 



appeared had not chance, acting in oppo- 

 sition to the desires of nature, permitted 

 isolated individuals to escape from the 

 excellent and far-seeing law that ordains 

 on all sides the triumph of the stronger. 



Can this mighty power err, then, that 

 seems unconscious to us, but necessarily 

 wise, seeing that the life she organises and 

 maintains is forever proving her to be 

 right? Can feebleness at times overcome 

 that supreme reason, which we are apt to 

 invoke when we have attained the limits 

 of our own ? And if that be so, by whom 

 shall this feebleness be set right ? 



But let us return to that special form 

 of her resistless intervention that we find 

 in parthenogenesis. And we shall do 

 well to remember that, remote as the 

 world may seem in which these problems 

 confront us, they do indeed yet concern 

 ourselves very nearly. Who would dare 

 to affirm that no interventions take place 



279 



