84 
NATURAL SELECTION, 
Chap. 1Y. 
served. How fleeting are tlie wishes and efforts of man! 
how short his time! and consequently how poor will 
his products be, compared with those accumulated by 
Nature during whole geological periods. Can we wonder, 
then, that Nature’s productions should be far truer ” 
in character than man’s productions; that they should 
be infinitely better adapted to the most complex condi¬ 
tions of life, and should plainly bear the stamp of far 
higher workmanship ? 
It may metaphorically be said that natural selection 
is daily and hourly scrutinising, throughout the world, 
every variation, even the slightest; rejecting that whicli 
is bad, preserving and adding up all that is good; 
silently and insensibly working, whenever and wherever 
opportunity offers, at the improvement of each organic 
being in relation to its organic and inorganic condi¬ 
tions of life. We see nothing of these slow changes in 
progress, until the hand of time has marked the long 
lapse of ages, and then so imperfect is our view into 
long past geological ages, that we only see that the 
forms of life are now different from what they formerly 
were. 
Although natural selection can act only through and 
for the good of each being, yet characters and structures, 
which we are apt to consider as of very trifling import¬ 
ance, may thus be acted on. When we see leaf-eating 
insects green, and bark-feeders mottled-grey; the 
alpine ptarmigan white in winter, the red-grouse the 
colour of heather, and the black-grouse that of peaty 
earth, we must believe that these tints are of service to 
these birds and insects in preserving them from danger. 
Grouse, if not destroyed at some period of their lives, 
would increase in countless numbers; they are known 
to suffer largely from birds of prey; and hawks are 
guided by eyesight to their prey—so much so, that on 
