'////: /;/:/. /'.!>/ A />/>!; f-^8. 477 



the liHmble-bee with its rude cells, through the Melipona 

 with its more artisti-- O ;li itsast 



"ire. The bees place th. at equal 



distances apart upon the wax, e.jual 



>pheres round tin : {..tints. Tin 



and the planes of intersection are huill up with thin 

 lamin;e. Hexagonal thus formed. This mode 



of treating such questions is, as I have said, rcpresenta- 

 Tho expositor habitually pe m the more 



perfect and complex, to the less perfect and simp! 

 carries you with him through 



increment to increment of intinitesinud change, and in this 

 way gradually breaks down your reluctance to admit that 



xquisite climax of the whole could ilt of 



natural selection, 



Mr. Darwin shirks no difficulty; and, saturated as the sub- 

 ject was with his own thought, he must have known, 

 better than his critics, the weakness as well as th- 

 of his theory. This of course would be of little avail were 

 his object a temporary dialectic victory, instead of the 

 establishment of a truth which lie means to be everla 

 But he takes no pains to disgui- 



i; nay. he takes every pains to bring it into the 

 . ight. \l\< vjust resources enable him to cop.- \\ith 

 objections started by himself and others, so as to lea- 

 final impression upon the reader's mind that, if they lie not 

 completely answered, they certainly are not fatal. Their 

 negative force being thus I. yon are five to l,< 



influenced by the vast positive mass of evidence he i 

 to bring before you. This lar. -.f knowledge, and 



readiness of resource, render Mr. Darwin the n;<'-t terrible 

 of antagonists. Accomplished naturalists have leveled 

 heavy and sustained criticisms against him not always 

 with the view of fairly weighing his theory, but with the 

 express intention of exposing its weak points only. This 

 does not irritate him. He treats every objection \\ilh a 

 .-oberness and thoroughness which even Bishop Butler 

 might be proud to imitate, surrounding t with its 



appropriate detail, placing it in it- 

 u-milly gising it a significance which, as long as i' 

 kept isolated, failed fa Tl.i- is done without a 



fill-temper. lie move-; i,\i-r the subjeet with the 

 passionless strength of a gl d the grinding of the 



