The Hunting Wasps 



the past as far as fancy can carry you; you 

 call upon time, that factor of which we have 

 so little at our disposal and which, for this 

 very reason, is so well-suited to hide our illu- 

 sions. Here you can let yourselves go and 

 lavish the centuries. Suppose we shake up 

 hundreds of figures, all of different values, 

 in an urn and draw nine at random. When 

 shall we, in this way, obtain a sequence fixed 

 beforehand, a sequence that stands alone? 

 The chance is so slight, answers mathemat- 

 ics, that we may as well put it down as nil 

 and say that the desired arrangement will 

 never come about. For the Ammophila of 

 the prehistoric age, the attempt was renewed 

 only at long intervals, from one year to the 

 next. Then how did this sequence of nine 

 stings at nine selected points emerge from 

 the urn of chance? When I am driven to 

 appeal to infinity in time, I am very much 

 afraid of running up against absurdity. 



" But," say you, " the insect did not at- 

 tain its present surgical dexterity at the out- 

 set: it went through experiments, apprentice- 

 ships, varying degrees of skill. There was 

 a weeding-out by natural selection, elimina- 

 ting the less expert, retaining the more gifted; 

 and instinct, as we know it, developed gradu- 

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