Some Wa^eibe problems 



IT is generally assumed nowadays, that science has 

 spoken the last word on the subject of life and its 

 developments. He that would not be considered a 

 mere Philistine must profess to hold the great creed of 

 Evolution, and must do so, not because he himself 

 understands the proofs on which it is supposed to rest, 

 but because it has been worked out by experts in 

 laboratories and dissecting-rooms, because it comes to 

 him on the authority of men better than himself, men 

 who can talk familiarly of cellular tissues and protoplasm, 

 of ganglia and nerve centres, and the supra-condyloid- 

 foramen. 



The creed which comes to us thus authenticated is 

 this. That in the struggle for life, ceaselessly going on 

 upon the earth, those qualities or habits or attributes 

 are perpetuated and developed which enable their 

 possessors to survive, while others perish, so that not 

 only do we see in the creatures now existing the 

 " winners in life's race," but we also learn from examin- 

 ation of their constitutions, manners, customs, and 

 tastes, what it was that enabled them to win. Here, 

 we are told, is the explanation of all we see. The 

 Squirrels in our oak woods have survived to be there, 

 because they could crack nuts impervious to their rivals. 

 The acorns are there, and therefore the Oak-trees too, 

 because these nuts baffled enemies to which other nuts 

 yielded. If Crows are black and Flamingoes are scarlet, 

 it is only because these uniforms enabled their several 

 ancestors to march respectively more triumphantly to 

 victory. Nightingales sing because the practice has 

 proved useful to Nightingales, and Strawberries develop 

 in. 



