214 ORIGIN OF SPECIES 



always meet, as far as we can judge, with this high standard 

 under nature. The correction for the aberration of Hght 

 is said by Miiller not to be perfect even in that most perfect 

 organ, the human eye. Helmholtz, whose judgm.ent no one 

 will dispute, after describing in the strongest terms the won- 

 derful power of the human eye, adds these remarkable 

 words : "That which we have discovered in the way of in- 

 exactness and imperfection in the optical machine and in 

 the image on the retina, is as nothing in comparison with 

 the incongruities which we have just come across in the 

 domain of the sensations. One might say that nature has 

 taken delight in accumulating contradictions in order to re- 

 move all foundations from the theory of a pre-existing har- 

 mony between the external and internal worlds." If our 

 reason leads us to admire with enthusiasm a multitude of 

 inimitable contrivances in nature, this same reason tells us, 

 though we may easily err on both sides, that some other con- 

 trivances are less perfect. Can we consider the sting of the 

 bee as perfect, which, when used against many kinds of 

 enemies, cannot be withdrawn, owing to the backward serra- 

 tures, and thus inevitably causes the death of the insect by 

 tearing out its viscera? 



If we look at the sting of the bee, as having existed in a 

 remote progenitor, as a boring and serrated instrument, like 

 that in so many members of the same great order, and that 

 it has since been modified, but not perfected for its present 

 purpose, with the poison originally adapted for some other 

 object, such as to produce galls, since intensified, we can per- 

 haps understand how it is that the use of the sting should so 

 often cause the insect's own death : for if on the whole the 

 power of stinging be useful to the social community, it will 

 fulfil all the requirements of natural selection, though it 

 may cause the death of some few members. If we admire 

 the truly wonderful power of scent by which the males of 

 many insects find their females, can we admire the produc- 

 tion for this single purpose of thousands of drones, which 

 are utterly useless to the community for any other purpose, 

 and which are ultimately slaughtered by their industrious and 

 sterile sisters? It may be difficult, but we ought to admire 

 the savage instinctive hatred of the queen-bee, which urges 



