Page:The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 3 (1899).djvu/386

358 scientific demonstration. It is simply teleology come back to the house newly swept and garnished. To the teleologist everything in nature proclaimed design, and a precisely similar view—only differing in terminology—is held by an extreme wing of our own Darwinian army; the only distinction is, that the design in one case was attributed to a supernatural providence, in the other, to an all-sufficing power represented by the term Natural Selection. That the teleologist was in no way inferior, but in many instances—so far as power of observation was concerned—surpassed the knowledge of many of our contemporary entomological evolutionists, is a fact that can be easily realized by perusing the exhaustive Letter XXI. in Kirby and Spence's 'Introduction to Entomology,' on "The means by which insects defend themselves." In this letter may be found a wealth of illustration on what we understand as "protective resemblance," &c, not available in any special work written on that theory. How near to modern thought the writer of that letter was, is proved by its last paragraph:—"Another idea that upon this occasion must force itself into our mind is, that nothing is made in vain. When we find that so many seemingly trivial variations in the colour, clothing, form, structure, motions, habits, and economy of insects are of very great importance to them, we may safely conclude that the peculiarities in all these respects, of which we do not yet know the use, are equally necessary; and we may almost say, reversing the words of our Saviour, that not a hair is given to them without our Heavenly Father." Even when teleological views and the conception of a special creation dominated the minds of naturalists, the knowledge of the existence of intermediate forms—a postulate of modern evolution—was more or less enunciated. Thus, in the first part of the 'Zoological Transactions,' Mr. Ogilby, in describing the Cynictis Steedmanii, a mammal just then discovered in South Africa, remarks: "That the work of creation was originally complete and perfect in all its