g9 *l^e moth and the candle 



kian nonsense," and tlie rest. There is no evidence, they 

 say. And if you go beyond evidence you open the way to 

 the most baseless speculations. The whole enterprise of 

 science might just as well be given up. "No, no, no. Hard 

 as it may be to swallow the official version of how either 

 the Pronuba moth or Homo sapiens came to be what he is, 

 you must not ask us to admit the possibility that there is 

 purpose at work in the universe at large or even that the 

 scorpion who came to land and the moth which joined up 

 with the yucca had the dimmest conception of what he 

 was doing." 



We would be particularly happy, they say, to argue the 

 whole question out in connection with your moth because, 

 of all the highly evolved creatures, the insects are notori- 

 ously the most completely in the grip of their reflexes and 

 their instinctive patterns of behavior. On the one hand, 

 their life histories are extraordinarily complex. The spider's 

 web, the wasp's wise provision of living but paralyzed prey 

 for its young, and the complicated organization of ant so- 

 ciety, are unparalleled in their intricate effectiveness by 

 the procedures of any other creature except man. Ento- 

 mology is one long tale of marvels. Yet, on the other hand, 

 no other creatures are demonstrably so incapable of vary- 

 ing the set pattern of their behavior, so demonstrably un- 

 aware of what they are doing, or of why they do it. Thus 

 the very class of animals which appears superficially to be 

 the most purposeful is the very one in which not only pur- 

 pose but even the possibility of consciousness seems most 

 obviously absent. They are capable of behavior a thou- 

 sand times more impressive than any a dog could ever rise 

 to, yet a dog is far more intelligent. Not mentality of any 



