ANIMAL INSTINCTS. 151 



problem lies within this single question. If it can be 

 shown that some instincts are of such kind that no 

 material organisation alone is capable of producing 

 them and others such that none but a special and 

 designed organisation could evolve the particular in- 

 stinct we quit in these cases the domain of acces- 

 sible science, and can appeal only to that higher 

 Creative Power which is in itself the great mystery of 

 the universe. 



And such examples numerously occur, seeming to 

 compel this appeal. We cannot, with all the aids 

 derived from comparative anatomy, the microscope, 

 and other resources of modern science, make any 

 actual or conceivable organisation the exponents of 

 those social instincts of animal life which serve not 

 solely to individual existence but to the necessities or 

 well-being of a community which are in numerous 

 cases prospective in their action are strictly here- 

 ditary commence, untaught, with life itself, and ter- 

 minate only with death. How, for instance, can 

 aught we see of the bodily structure of the hive-bee 

 explain that marvellous fabric of the honeycomb to 

 which even mathematicians pay their homage of ad- 

 miration, or the social economy of the hive ? What is 

 there in the organisation of the white ants to account 

 for the strange and complex yet well-ordered economy 

 of these insect communities ? Where do we find the 

 organs giving to the salmon, to the migratory birds, to 

 the carrier-pigeon their peculiar instincts as to seasons 

 and localities? What is there in the beaver urging 

 this animal to employ his constructive art, though 



