128 The Hunting IVasps 



prey as she considers valueless to her larvae ; 

 and that is all about it. 



In short, the heroine of Darwin's story is 

 certainly a Wasp. Then what becomes of that 

 rational calculation on the part of the insect 

 which, the better to contend with the wind, 

 cut5 off its prey's abdomen, head and wings 

 and keeps only the thorax ? It becomes a 

 most simple incident, leading to none of the 

 mighty consequences which the writer seeks to 

 deduce from it : the very trivial incident of a 

 Wasp who begins to carve up her prey on the 

 spot and keeps only the stump, the one part 

 which she considers fit for her larvae. Far from 

 seeing the least sign of reason in this, I look 

 upon it as a mere act of instinct, one so elemen- 

 tary that it is really not worth expatiating 

 upon. 



To disparage man and exalt animals in order 

 to estabhsh a point of contact, foHowed by a 

 point of union, has been and still is the general 

 tendency of the ' advanced theories ' in fashion 

 in our day. Ah, how often are these ' sublime 

 theories,' that morbid craze of the time, based 

 upon ' proofs ' which, if subjected to the light 

 of experiment, would lead to as ridiculous results 

 as the learned Erasmus Darwin's Sphex ! 



