34 WHAT IS DARWINISM? 



have been known to point or to retrieve with- 

 out instruction. "If," he says, "it can be 

 shown that instincts do vary ever so little, then 

 I can see no difficulty in natural selection pre- 

 serving and continually accumulating varia- 

 tions of instinct to any extent that was profita- 

 ble. It is thus, as I believe, that all the most 

 complex and wonderful instincts have arisen." 

 (p. 257) He was rather unguarded in saying 

 that he saw no difficulty in accounting for the 

 most wonderful instincts of animals. He ad- 

 mits that he has found very great difficulty. 

 He selects three cases which he found it spe- 

 cially hard to deal with : that of the cuckoo, 

 that of the cell-building bee, and of the slave- 

 making ant. He devotes much space and 

 labor in endeavoring to show how the instinct 

 of the bee, for example, in the construction of 

 its cell, might have been gradually acquired. 

 It is clear, however, that he was not able fully 

 to satisfy even his own mind; for he admits 

 that " it will be thought that I have an over- 

 weening confidence in the principle of natural 

 selection, when I do not admit that such won- 

 derful and well established facts do not anni- 

 hilate the theory." (p. 290) This remark 

 was made with special reference to the instincts 



