18 ANIMAL LIFE AND HUMAN PROGRESS 



That remarkable man, Erasmus Darwin, grandfather of the 

 great prophet of evolution, was fond of giving poetical expres- 

 sion to the delight which he derived from the study of the 

 vegetable kingdom. I suppose, however, that his " Botanic 

 Garden " can hardly be described as classical poetry, and it 

 would certainly take a far greater poet than he to do justice 

 to the feelings which the study of even the lower animals 

 inspires in the mind of the devoted naturalist. The great 

 drawback of scientific zoology is that it leaves all this wealth 

 of beauty out of account. But perhaps, after all, it is well 

 that this should be so, for any attempt to appreciate it in 

 scientific language could but result ia lamentable failure. 

 How could any scientific description of a humming-bird, for 

 example, or of a peacock displaying its gorgeous plumage in 

 the sunlight, give any adequate idea of the glorious thing that 

 a humming-bird or a peacock really is ? How could any mere 

 scientific treatment do justice to the pleasure which the 

 naturaUst derives from the contemplation of the marvellous 

 forms of animal life brought up from the depths of the sea 

 or revealed by the microscope even in the water of a muddy 

 pond ? 



Whence do we derive our aesthetic sense ? Is it some 

 heaven-sent faculty granted to man alone or do we share it 

 with our less-gifted fellow-creatures ? Does an insect, as it 

 hovers about the flowers in search of honey, derive any aesthetic 

 satisfaction from their beauty of form and colour or from 

 their fragrance ? It surely must do so, for there is the strongest 

 reason for beUeving that these marvellous forms and colours 

 and scents, which we ourselves appreciate so highly, have 

 arisen in the course of evolution in response to what we may 

 fairly call the tastes of the insects, long before man appeared 

 upon the scene ; that they are so many inducements ofiered 

 to the insects to attract them to the flowers and thereby 

 secure the fertihsation upon which the continued existence of 

 the plants depends. If this be so, what do we ourselves owe to 

 the insects ? Have they not set the standard of taste in these 

 matters and are we not their debtors for much of our own 

 aesthetic education and enjoyment ? If we lived in a world 



