270 CREATION BY LAW. 
maintains that no explanation of these ‘ contrivances ” 
has been or can be given, except on the supposition of 
a personal contriver, specially arranging the details of 
each case, although causing them to be produced by 
the ordinary processes of growth and reproduction. 
Now there is a difficulty in this view of the origin 
of the structure of Orchids which the Duke does not 
allude to. The majority of flowering plants are fer- 
tilized, either without the agency of insects or, when 
insects are required, without any very important modi- 
fication of the structure of the flower. It is evident, 
therefore, that flowers might have been formed as 
varied, fantastic, and beautiful as the Orchids, and yet 
have been fertilized without more complexity of struc- 
ture than is found in Violets, or Clover, or Primroses, 
or a thousand other flowers. The strange springs | 
and traps and pitfalls found in the flowers of Orchids 
cannot be necessary per se, since exactly the same end 
is gained in ten thousand other flowers which do not 
possess them. Is it not then an extraordinary idea, 
to imagine the Creator of the Universe contriving the 
various complicated parts of these flowers, as a me- 
chanic might contrive an ingenious toy or a difficult 
puzzle? Is it not a more worthy conception that they 
are some of the results of those general laws which 
were so co-ordinated at the first introduction of life 
upon the earth as to result necessarily in the utmost 
possible development of varied forms? 
But let us take one of the simpler cases adduced 
and see if our general laws are unable to account for it. 
