WASPS 215 
right, and without which life would not be worth 
having. So I thought at the time; it is a most 
common delusion of the human mind, for we see 
that the good which is so much to us is taken 
forcibly away, and that we get over our loss and 
go on very much as before. 
It is curious to see now that Darwin himself 
gave the first comfort to those who, convinced 
against their will, were anxious to discover some 
way of escape which would not involve the total 
abandonment of their cherished beliefs. At all 
events, he suggested the idea, which religious minds 
were quick to seize upon, that the new explanation 
of the origin of the innumerable forms of life which 
people the earth from one or a few primordial 
organisms afforded us a nobler conception of the 
creative mind than the traditional one. It does not 
bear examination, probably it originated in the 
author’s kindly and compassionate feelings rather 
than in his reasoning faculties; but it gave tem- 
porary relief and served its purpose. Indeed, to 
some, to very many perhaps, it still serves as a 
refuge—this poor, hastily made straw shelter, which 
lets in the rain and wind, but seems better to them 
than no shelter at all. 
But of the intentionally consoling passages in 
the book, the most impressive to me was that in 
which he refers to instincts and adaptation such 
as those of the wasp, which writers on natural 
history subjects are accustomed to describe, in a 
way that seems quite just and natural, as diabolical. 
