s or clover or primroses, or a thousand other flowers. The
strange springs and traps and pitfalls found in the flowers of orchids
can not be necessary _per se_, since exactly the same end is gained in
ten thousand other flowers which do not possess them. Is it not, then,
an extraordinary idea to imagine the Creator of the universe
_contriving_ the various complicated parts of these flowers as a
mechanic might contrive an ingenious toy or a difficult puzzle? Is it
not a more worthy conception that they are some of the results of
those general laws which were so co-ordinated at the first
introduction of life upon the earth as to result necessarily in the
utmost possible development of varied forms?"

A moment's thought is sufficient to show that there is no essential
difference between the Creator contriving every detail of the
structure of an orchid and his producing it through some intermediate
cause, or his commanding it into existence by his almighty word. The
same mental process, so to speak, of the contriver is implied in
either case. But there is an immeasurable difference between any of
those ideas and that of the orchid producing its parts spontaneously
under the operation of insensate physical law, whatever that may be,
alone. Again, in the same review, Wallace writes:

"The uncertainty of opinion among naturalists as to which are species
and which varieties is one of Mr. Darwin's very strong arguments that
these two names can not belong to things quite distinct in nature and
origin. The reviewer says that this argument is of no weight, because
the works of man present exactly the same phenomena, and he instances
patent inventions, and the excessive difficulty of determining whether
they are new or old. I accept the analogy, and maintain that it is all
in favor of Mr. Darwin's views; for are not all inventions of the same
kind directly affiliated to a common ancestor. Are not improved
steam-engines or clocks the lineal descendants of some existing
steam-engine or clock? Is there ever a new creation in art or science
any more than in nature? Did ever patentee absolutely originate any
complete and entire invention no portion of which was derived from any
thing that had been made or described before? It is, therefore, clear
that the difficulty of distinguishing the various classes of
inventions which claim to be new is of the same nature as the
difficulty of distinguishing varieties and species, because neither
a