aw causes only, w!. il 1 indicate that 



tiey must result from many concurrent forces and determinations 

 f force. We have all no doubt read those ingenious, not to say 

 musing, speculations in which some entomologists and botanists 

 ave indulged with reference to the mutual relations of flowers 

 ncl haustellate insects. Geologically the facts oblige us to begin 



:ie desire of insects for non-existent honey, and the adaptations of 

 lants to the requirements of non-existenf suctorial apparatus, we 

 ave to evolve the marvellous complexity of floral form and color- 

 lg, and the exquisitely delicate apparatus of the mouths of haus- 

 jllate insects. Now when it is borne in mind that this theory 

 nplies a mental confusion on our- part precisely similar to that 

 Inch in the department of mechanics actuates the seekers for 



plant and the insect have to be worked out by a series of - 

 rent evolutions so complex and absolutely incalculable 

 aggregate, that the cycles and epic; 



we are accused of attempting to construct the universe by meth- 

 ods that would baffle Omnipotence itself, because they are simply 

 absurd. In this aspect of them indeed such speculations are 

 nece— arily futile, because no mind can grasp all the complexities 

 of even any one case, and it is useless to follow out an imaginary 

 line of development which unexplained facts must contradict at 

 every step. This is also no doubt the reason why all recent at- 

 tempts at constructing " Phylogenies " are so changeable, and why 

 no two experts can agree about almost any of them. 



A second aspect in which such speculations are too partial, is in 

 the unwarranted use which they make of analogy. It is not un- 

 usual to find such analogies as that between the embryonic devel- 

 opment of the individual animal and the succession of animals in 

 geological time placed on a level with that reasoning from anal- 

 og}' by which geologists apply mo lern can-.- to explain geological 

 formations. No claim could be more unfounded. When the ge- 

 ologi.st studies ancient limestones built up of the remains of corals, 

 and then applies the phenomena of modern coral reefs to explain 



