Hypertely 
“ All such criticism is founded on our imperfect 
knowledge of the struggle for existence. The 
impressions and judgments of man are immensely 
influenced by the ‘corroborative detail,’ giving 
‘artistic verisimilitude to a bold and unconvincing 
narrative.’ Indeed, the laughter which is in- 
variably raised by this passage from The Mikado 
is, I have always thought, not only or chiefly 
due to the humour of the application, but to the 
way in which a great and familiar truth breaks 
in upon the listener with all the pleasing surprise 
which belongs to epigram. Birds, the chief 
enemies of insects, are known to have powers 
of sight far superior to those of man, and, from 
our experience of them in captivity, it may be 
safely asserted that their attention is attracted by 
excessively minute detail. Until our knowledge 
of the struggle for life is far more extensive than 
at present, the argument founded on Hypertely 
may be left to contend with another argument 
often employed against the explanation of cryptic 
and mimetic resemblance by natural selection. 
Hypertely assumes that there are unnecessary 
details in the resemblance, that the resemblance 
is perfect beyond the requirements of the insect ; 
the second argument maintains that birds are so 
supremely sharp-sighted that no resemblance, 
however perfect, is of any avail against them. 
In the meantime the majority of naturalists will 
probably reject both extremes, and believe that 
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