40 THE REIGN OF LAW. 



that is to say, how those parts came to be de- 

 veloped, and out of what "primordial elements" 

 they have been derived in their present shapes, 

 and converted to their present uses — this is a 

 question which Darwin does also attempt to solve, 

 but the solution of which is in the highest degree 

 difficult and uncertain. It is curious to observe 

 the language which this most advanced disciple 

 of pure naturalism instinctively uses when he 

 has to describe the complicated structure of this 

 curious order of plants. " Caution in ascribing 

 intentions to nature " does not seem to occur to 

 him as possible. Intention is the one thing 

 which he does see, and which, when he does not 

 see, he seeks for diligently until he finds it. He 

 exhausts every form of words and of illustration 

 by which intention or mental purpose can be 

 described. " Contrivance " — " curious contriv- 

 ance " — "beautiful contrivance," — these are ex- 

 pressions which recur over and over again. Here 

 is one sentence describing the parts of a particular 

 species ; " the Labellum is developed into a long 

 nectary, in order to attract Lepidoptera, and we 

 shall presently give reasons for suspecting that 



