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is, since we cannot know what "nimble emanations" 

 and vibrations, which touch not our coarser natures, 

 there may be to link these diverse and seemingly 

 ill-fitting actions into one perfect chain. It may be 

 said, for instance, that in this species the incessant 

 stridulating of the male has an action similar to that 

 of the sun's light and heat on plant life, causing the 

 flower to blow and its sexual organs to ripen. But 

 we see, too, that Nature does often overshoot her 

 mark. We have seen it, I think, in the over-refine- 

 ment of the passion and faculty of fear in certain 

 species, in reference to cases of fascination, and we 

 see it in the over-protected and the over-specialised; 

 but we are so imbued with the idea that the right 

 mean has always been hit upon and adhered to, that 

 it is only in view of the most flagrant cases to the 

 contrary that we are ever startled out of that delu- 

 sion. The miserable case, for example, of the Poly- 

 ergus rufescens, the slave-making ant, who, from being 

 too much waited upon, has so entirely lost the power 

 of waiting upon himself that he will perish of hunger 

 amidst plenty if his slaves be not there to pick up 

 and put the food into his mouth. These extreme 

 cases are not the only ones, for every one of such a 

 character there are hundreds of cases. " Degeneration," 

 as Ray Lankester has aptly said, "goes hand in hand 

 with elaboration ; " and I would add that in number- 

 less cases over-elaboration is the cause of degeneration. 

 The female is the grander insect, being nearly a 



