"[32]
A fourth objection has reference to beauty. According to Mr. Darwin,
flowers are not intentionally made beautiful, but those which happen to
be beautiful attract insects, and by their agency are fertilized and
survive. Male birds are not intentionally arrayed in bright colors, but
those which happen to be so arrayed are attractive, and thus become the
progenitors of their race. Against this explanation the Duke earnestly
protests. He refers to the gorgeous adorned class of Hummingbirds, of
which naturalists enumerate no less than four hundred and thirty
different species, distinguished one from the other, in general, only by
their plumage. "Now," he asks, "what explanation does the law of natural
selection give,--I will not say of the origin, but even of the
continuance of such specific varieties as these? None whatever. A crest
of topaz is no better in the struggle of existence than a crest of
sapphire. A frill ending in spangles of the emerald is no better in the
battle of life than a frill ending in spangles of the ruby. A tail is
not affected for the purposes of flight, whether its marginal, or its
central feathers are decorated with white. It is impossible to bring
such varieties into any physical law known to us. It has relation
however to a Purpose, which stands in close analogy with our knowledge
of purpose in the works of men.
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