ON SEXUAL SELECTION IN BIRDS. 417 



conception of natural selection has taken us — as great a mystery 

 as ever. Creative power — that power which evolution reveals at 

 every turn — can alone supply an answer. It is difficult to under- 

 stand how such a condition of thought could have arisen, which, 

 while admitting the principle of evolution, denied the possibility 

 of creative power. Such questions as have here been discussed, 

 together with others of equal interest, can only be solved by the 

 closest study of animal life. By life I do not mean death. This 

 may sound paradoxical, but it is none the less true ; for, until it 

 comes to be recognized that the knowledge of the working and 

 development of the mind of an animal is of greater importance 

 than the knowledge of the body — is the human mind considered 

 of little importance ? — the solution of such questions will remain 

 in doubt, and no progress will be made towards supplying an 

 answer to the great mystery alluded to in the following beautiful 



lines : — 



" Flower in the crannied wall, 

 I pluck you out of the crannies ; 

 I hold you here, root and all, in my hand, 

 Little flower — but if I could understand 

 What you are, root and all, and all in all, 

 I should know what God and man is." 



Zool. 4th ser. vol. VII., November, 1903. 2 k 



