THE METHOD 97 



there was. But the insect did not require the plant 

 for its support. The germs of the plant would have 

 died out without the insect. But neither of them was 

 especially designed for the other. The probable fact 

 is, that the form of flower on the plant was a variation 

 produced by a natural cause that had no reference 

 whatever to the existence of the insect with the long 

 bill. But, the insect in its casual flight among the 

 vegetation of the island, alighted on this new variety 

 of flower, and in feasting on its sweets carried its pollen 

 to another of the same variety, and thus started a 

 growth which will continue as long as the soil and 

 habitat produce both the flower, and the insect. The 

 only parallel here is that both forms are adapted to 

 each other to this extent, and that parallel is very un- 

 usual, and noticeable. It is precisely the same 

 principle, that governs all evolutions. Variations are 

 continually appearing in all hereditary forms, whose 

 cause is rather obscure, and those that find the con- 

 ditions as favorable as did that of the deep petaled 

 orchid of Madagascar, in the means of fertilization and 

 growth, in the long billed insect, live and spread. But 

 those that fail to come in contact with such means, die 

 out, and most of them are never noticed, as are those 

 that live, especially in such a striking way as the above 

 mentioned orchid. If there were any design in such 

 evolution of life forms, would not the designer bring 

 into existence only such forms as can survive with the 

 means at hand, and not waste such an innumerable host 

 of incipient organisms, as we see dying every year ? 



It seems there existed in the inorganic world after 

 its evolution to a certain condition, four elements 

 carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, and hydrogen which -were 

 so explosive, or unstable, that the inertness of a solid 



