THE PER TILISA TION OF FL WERS. 34 r 



hypothesis in question can suffer from arguments familiar in days 

 when natural theology was strained and wrested to its destruction. 

 A truer and a higher use for the beauty of plants and of animals as 

 well is found in the special advantages which such beauty confers 

 upon the race. In the animal, beauty appears as an aid to the 

 propagation of the species, as it is 'in the plant ; and it is by 

 the action of insects that the beauty of flowers has been extended 

 and developed. The beauty of the blossom is in truth due to 

 the visitations of the insect races which in the past have selected 

 its petals as a feeding-ground, and which have strengthened and 

 increased the flower race, thus favoured by a true " natural selection," 

 in the universal struggle for existence. The higher ideas of nature 

 thus implanted, form no mean fruits of a study of the polity of prim- 

 roses and other common flowers. Such studies correct the idea that 

 this world is simply a huge workshop, filled with specially contrived 

 mechanical appliances for man's use and benefit, or a gaudy saloon 

 decked out with beauty for the indulgence of his senses. Those who 

 hold such views may not complain if their belief be logically ex- 

 tended to include the theory that fur-seals were specially created to 

 afford us seal-skin jackets, and humming-birds designed to trim the 

 hats of fair wearers in the fleeting fashion of the hour. So that, if 

 no greater excellence be traceable in the theory of evolution than 

 is involved in the correction of false notions of the aims and ends 

 of nature, those who pursue science-studies even to this extent will 

 reap a rich harvest of rational ideas concerning the true ordering of 

 this universe, especially within the domain of life itself. 



