Mr.
Mivart has alluded to the subject in the following and precisely
opposite sense:--

Many of the more noteworthy instincts lead us from manifestations
of purpose directed to the maintenance of the individual, to no
less plain manifestations of a purpose directed to the preservation
of the race. But a careful study of the interrelations and
interdependencies which exist between the various orders of
creatures inhabiting this planet shows us yet a more noteworthy
teleology--the existence of whole orders of such creatures being
directed to the service of other orders in various degrees of
subordination and augmentation respectively. This study reveals to
us, as a fact, the enchainment of all the various orders of
creatures in a hierarchy of activities, in harmony with what we
might expect to find in a world the outcome of a First Cause
possessed of intelligence and will[64].

[64] _On Truth_, p. 493.

Having read this much, a Darwinian is naturally led to expect that Mr.
Mivart is about to offer some examples of instincts or structures
exemplifying what in the margin he calls the "Hierarchy of
Ministrations." Yet the only facts he proceeds to adduce are the
sufficiently obvious facts, that the inorganic world existed before the
organic, plants before herbivorous animals, these before carnivorous,
and so on: that is to say, everywhere the conditions to the occurrence
of any given stage of evolution preceded such occurrence, as it is
obvious that they must, if, as of course it is not denied, the
possibility of such occurrence depended on the precedence of such
conditions. Now, it is surely obvious that such a "hierarchy of
ministrations" as this, far from telling against the theory of natural
selection, is the very thing which tells most in its favour. The fact
that animals, for instance, only appeared upon the earth after there
were plants for them to feed upon, is clearly a necessity of the case,
whether or not there was any design in the matter. Such "ministrations,"
therefore, as plant-organisms yield to animal-organisms is just the kind
of ministration that the theory of natural selection requires. Thus far,
then, both the theories--natural selection and super-natural
design--have an equal right to appropriate the facts. But now, if in no
one instance can it be shown that the ministration of plant-life to
animal-life is of such a kind as to su