five
toes fitted for walking or grasping; and we may further venture to
believe that the several bones in the limbs of the monkey, horse and
bat, were originally developed, on the principle of utility, probably
through the reduction of more numerous bones in the fin of some ancient
fish-like progenitor of the whole class. It is scarcely possible to
decide how much allowance ought to be made for such causes of change,
as the definite action of external conditions, so-called spontaneous
variations, and the complex laws of growth; but with these important
exceptions, we may conclude that the structure of every living creature
either now is, or was formerly, of some direct or indirect use to its
possessor.

With respect to the belief that organic beings have been created
beautiful for the delight of man--a belief which it has been pronounced
is subversive of my whole theory--I may first remark that the sense of
beauty obviously depends on the nature of the mind, irrespective of
any real quality in the admired object; and that the idea of what is
beautiful, is not innate or unalterable. We see this, for instance, in
the men of different races admiring an entirely different standard of
beauty in their women. If beautiful objects had been created solely for
man's gratification, it ought to be shown that before man appeared
there was less beauty on the face of the earth than since he came on the
stage. Were the beautiful volute and cone shells of the Eocene epoch,
and the gracefully sculptured ammonites of the Secondary period, created
that man might ages afterwards admire them in his cabinet? Few objects
are more beautiful than the minute siliceous cases of the diatomaceae:
were these created that they might be examined and admired under the
higher powers of the microscope? The beauty in this latter case, and
in many others, is apparently wholly due to symmetry of growth. Flowers
rank among the most beautiful productions of nature; but they have
been rendered conspicuous in contrast with the green leaves, and in
consequence at the same time beautiful, so that they may be easily
observed by insects. I have come to this conclusion from finding it an
invariable rule that when a flower is fertilised by the wind it never
has a gaily-coloured corolla. Several plants habitually produce two
kinds of flowers; one kind open and coloured so as to attract insects;
the other closed, not coloured, destitute of nectar, and never visited
by