100 GLAUCUS ; OR, 



Antiopa* tlicy are transparent bags; and in 

 many other English species they take every con- 

 ceivable form of leaf, tree, flower, and branch, 

 bedecked with every color of the rainbow, as 

 you may see them depicted in Messrs. Alder 

 and Hancock's unrivalled Monograph on the 

 Nudibranch MoUusca. 



And now, worshipper of final causes and the 

 mere useful in Nature, answer but one ques- 

 tion, — Why this prodigal variety? All these 

 Nudibranchs live in much the same way: why 

 would not the same mould have done for them 

 all ? And why, again, (for we must push the 

 argument a little further,) why have not all the 

 butterflies, at least all v/ho feed on the same 

 plant, the same markings ? Of all unfathomable 

 triumphs of design, (we can only express our- 

 selves thus, for honest induction, as Paley so well 

 teaches, allows us to ascribe such results only to 

 the design of some personal will and mind,) what 

 surpasses that by which the scales on a butterfly's 

 wing are arranged to produce a certain pattern 

 of artistic beauty beyond all painter's skill ? 

 What a waste of power, on any utilitarian theory 

 of nature ! And once more ; why are those 

 * Gossc's "Naturalist in Devon/' p. 325. 



