268 
machinery, admirably fitted to perform a certain set of ope- 
rations and produce certain results. Reason says that such 
means to such ends must have been the work of an intelligent 
Maker. They are stamped with the evidence of mind. 
Dr. Haeckel, however, says, No ! Nothing of the sort. It 
never was designed. But this is how it came. In the far 
distant past some ancient bird thought within itself, could I 
but find some unknown soft and dainty morsel, I should then 
be able to satisfy my hunger ; and so it set off in search. It 
lighted on a tree, and heard a mysterious sound under the 
bark. Can this be what I want ? It may be. But how shall 
I know ? Could I but make a hole I should be able to reach 
the prize. I will try. No ! I cannot do it ; my bill is soft. 
But can I not harden it ? Yes ; I will continue trying to 
make holes, and in time it will get harder, and perchance grow 
longer. And so it tried, and failed, and tried again ; and 
after thousands of generations of would-be woodpeckers had 
passed away, a bird was seen with a long hard bill. Now 
the struggle to obtain the larva commenced in earnest. A 
hole was made, and the run of the maggot discovered. Could 
I only put my bill or my tongue down the cranny, says the 
acute old bird, I should obtain the wished-for morsel. But 
my bill is rigid, and my tongue is short. I see ! I must 
lengthen my tongue. But how can this be accomplished ? I 
must continue to try. A thousand generations of birds are 
hatched, and die, and the prize is not obtained. At last 
an exceedingly wise old bird conceives the idea that if she 
could but place the germ of a longer tongue than her own in 
the next egg which she lays, her progeny would possess longer 
tongues ; and then if these lengthened tongues were con- 
stantly used they would, in the course of future ages, be long 
enough to reach the hidden grub. So conceiving the idea, 
this wise bird did really place the germ of a long tongue in 
her eggs ; and in course of time, after many failures and many 
alterations, the woodpecker of to-day is the result. 
I am told that this is what I must believe — and nothing 
else, and if I do not believe this, I must forfeit all claim to be 
considered scientific, or even rational. But my reason demurs. 
It says such a theory is unreasonable, because it requires me 
to believe that the mere desire in some former soft-billed, 
short-tongued bird, to possess a hard bill and a long tongue, 
did ultimately produce the wonderful organ which the wood- 
pecker of to-day possesses, not as the result of a presiding 
mind, but by natural selection. 
It is necessary now to take another step in our investiga- 
