194 THE REIGN OF LAW. 



slow and insensible approach. Their structure dis- 

 arms suspicion. Wonderful as this structure is, 

 it would be none the less, but all the more 

 wonderful, if it should arise by way of Natural 

 Consequence from some law of development or 

 of growth. It must be a law of which at pre- 

 sent we have no knowledge, and can hardly form 

 any conception. But certain it is that here, as in 

 all other cases, the purpose which is actually 



It, 



attained, is attained by a special adaptation 

 of ordinary structure to a special and extraor- 

 dinary purpose. No new members are given to 

 the Mantis ; there is no departure from the plan 

 on which all other insects of the same order are 

 designed. The body has the same number of 

 segments, the legs are the same in number, and 

 are composed of the same joints ; every part of 

 this strange creature which seems like a bit of 

 foliage animated with insect life, can be referred 

 to its corresponding part in the ordinary anatomy 

 of its class. The whole effect is produced by a 

 little elongation here, a little swelling there, a little 

 dwarfing of one part, a little development of an- 

 other. The most striking part of the whole imita- 



