The correction for the aberration of light is said
by Muller not to be perfect even in that most perfect organ, the human eye.
Helmholtz, whose judgment no one will dispute, after describing in the
strongest terms the wonderful powers of the human eye, adds these
remarkable words: "That which we have discovered in the way of inexactness
and imperfection in the optical machine and in the image on the retina, is
as nothing in comparison with the incongruities which we have just come
across in the domain of the sensations. One might say that nature has
taken delight in accumulating contradictions in order to remove all
foundation from the theory of a pre-existing harmony between the external
and internal worlds." If our reason leads us to admire with enthusiasm a
multitude of inimitable contrivances in nature, this same reason tells us,
though we may easily err on both sides, that some other contrivances are
less perfect. Can we consider the sting of the bee as perfect, which, when
used against many kinds of enemies, cannot be withdrawn, owing to the
backward serratures, and thus inevitably causes the death of the insect by
tearing out its viscera?
If we look at the sting of the bee, as having existed in a remote
progenitor, as a boring and serrated instrument, like that in so many
members of the same great order, and that it has since been modified but
not perfected for its present purpose, with the poison originally adapted
for some other object, such as to produce galls, since intensified, we can
perhaps understand how it is that the use of the sting should so often
cause the insect's own death: for if on the whole the power of stinging be
useful to the social community, it will fulfil all the requirements of
natural selection, though it may cause the death of some few members.
Pages:
299
300
301
302
303
304
305
306
307
308
309
310
311
312
313
314
315
316
317
318
319
320
321
322
323