The Life of the Weevil 
If the Rhynchites and her competitors in 
means of defence against the dangers of 
asphyxia have taught themselves their trade 
by degrees, by passing from an unsuccessful 
to another, more satisfactory method; if 
they are really the creatures of their achieve- 
ments, do not let us hesitate, though we deal 
a blow to our self-conceit: let us recognize 
them as engineers capable of teaching a 
lesson to our own graduates; let us acclaim 
the microcephalous Weevil as a powerful 
thinker, a wonderful inventor. 
You dare not go to that length; you prefer 
to appeal to the hazards of chance. But 
what a wretched resource is chance when we 
are considering such rational contrivances! 
As well throw the letters of the alphabet up 
in the air and expect them to form a given 
line of a poem as they fall! 
Instead of bamboozling our minds with 
such tortuous conceptions, how much simpler 
and above all how much more truthful to say: 
“Matter is governed by a_ sovereign 
order.” 
This is what the Sloe-weevil, in her 
humble way, tells us. 
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