on offered by this theory might perhaps be that
varieties of plants which presented a certain superficial resemblance in
their flowers to insects, have thereby been helped to propagate their kind,
the visit of certain insects being useful or indispensable to the
fertilization of many flowers.

We have thus a whole series of important facts which "Natural Selection"
helps us to understand and co-ordinate. And not only are all these diverse
facts strung together, as it were, by the theory in question; not only does
it explain the development of the complex instincts of the beaver, the
cuckoo, the bee, and the ant, as also the dazzling brilliancy of the
humming-bird, the glowing tail and neck of the peacock, and the melody of
the nightingale; the perfume of the rose and the violet, the brilliancy of
the tulip and the sweetness of the nectar of flowers; not only does it help
us to understand all these, but serves as a basis of future research and of
inference from the known to the unknown, and it guides the investigator to
the discovery of new facts which, when ascertained, it seems also able to
co-ordinate.[6] Nay, "Natural Selection" seems capable of application not
only to the building up of the smallest and most insignificant organisms,
but even of extension beyond the biological domain altogether, so as
possibly to have relation to the stable equilibrium of the solar system{10}
itself, and even of the whole sidereal universe. Thus, whether this theory
be true or false, all lovers of natural science should acknowledge a deep
debt of gratitude to Messrs. Darwin and Wallace, on account of its
practical utility. But the utility of a theory by no means implies its
truth. What do we not owe, for example, to the labours of the Alchemists?
The emission theory of light, again, has been pregnant with valuable
results, as still is the Atomic theory, and others which will readily
suggest themselves.

With regard to Mr. Darwin (with whose name, on account of the noble
self-abnegation of Mr. Wallace, the theory is in general exclusively
associated), his friends may heartily congratulate him on the fact that he
is one of the few exceptions to the rule respecting the non-appreciation of
a prophet in his own country. It would be difficult to name another living
labourer in the field of physical science who has excited an interest so
widespread, and given rise to so much praise, gathering round him, as he
has done, a chorus of more or l