MODERN SCIENCE. 63 



scientific researches. From some of their ex- 

 pressions they would almost seem to imply that 

 insects were made for the sake of fertilizing 

 flowers. They attribute the bright colour and 

 beauty of flowers not to the same good purpose 

 that gives beauty elsewhere, but as if it were 

 merely that insects may be attracted, and do 

 their duty among the ripening pollen. They are 

 contemptuous at the idea of a flower being in- 

 tended for the selfish pleasure of man and not 

 for its own purposes, and they point to plants of 

 beauty that " blush unseen " where man cannot 

 admire them, forgetting, however, that man has 

 seen them, or he would not know of their exist- 

 ence. They will learn nothing of the affluence 

 of nature, and nothing is quite accepted unless 

 its use can be established, though on this prin- 

 ciple it is hard to explain why, as Bishop Hall 

 pointed out long ago, "there is many a rich 

 stone laid up in the bowels of the earth, many 

 a faire pearle laid up in the bosome of the sea, 

 that never was seen, nor never shall be." 



It is curious how apparent extremes will meet. 



