The Sloe-Weevil 
tion in size; that a warm or cold climate may 
have thinned or thickened the fur: all these 
changes and many others besides I willingly 
concede, if that will give any one any pleas- 
ure; but, for pity’s sake, let us take higher 
ground than this, do not let us reduce the 
world of the living to a collection of digestive 
tubes, an assortment of bellies that fill and 
empty themselves. 
Let us reflect upon the masterly touch that 
sets the whole animal machine in motion; 
let us question the instincts, the controllers 
of form; let us remember that glorious ex- 
pression of the ancients, mens agitat molem; 
and we shall understand the inextricable 
difficulty that besets the theorists when they 
wish to explain how it is that of four insects, 
as much alike in shape as so many drops of 
water, two roll leaves, another carves fruit- 
stones and the fourth profits by the pulp of 
a rotten fruit. 
If they are affiliated to one another, if 
they are indeed related, as their so strongly- 
marked family-resemblance would seem to 
afirm, which of them was the first of the 
line? Could it be the leaf-roller? 
No one, unless he be content with idle 
201 
