DARWIN ON THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES 133 



study of adaptations from all suspicion of triviality, for 

 no one before him had seen so clearly how all new- 

 species arise by adaptation of pre-existing ones. It is 

 by adaptation that new forms of life arise ; it is inheri- 

 tance which preserves old ones. 



Socrates, Swammerdam, and Paley had drawn from 

 the adaptations of nature proofs of the omnipotence 

 and beneficence of the Creator. Darwin, while ad- 

 mitting- that every organism is exquisitely adapted to 

 its own mode of life, believed that the adaptations have 

 been perfected by slow degrees, and that they cannot 

 be proved to have been consciously devised. This 

 interpretation deprives the theologian of valued argu- 

 ments, but at the same time rids him of difficulties. 

 Even before Darwin's day some few natural theologians 

 had the courage to bring forward instances of the 

 harshness of nature. Kirby and Spence^ thought that 

 no injustice was done to certain predatory insects by 

 comparing them to devils. Others blessed the mercy 

 of heaven, which, after creating noxious animals, 

 created others to keep them in check. Darwin, when 

 reflecting upon the odious instincts which urge the 

 young cuckoo to eject its foster-brothers, some species 

 of ants to enslave others, and a multitude of ichneumons 

 to lay their eggs in the bodies of live caterpillars, found 

 it a relief to be able to shift the responsibility to an 

 unconscious natural process.^ 



In his autobiography Darwin remarks that he had 

 thought it almost useless to endeavour to prove by 

 indirect evidence that species had been modified until 

 he was able to show how the adaptations could be ex- 

 plained. Some of them alarmed him by their difficulty; 



* Introduction to Entomology, Introductory Letter. 

  Life and Letters t Vol. I., chap. ii. 



