第 21 节
作者:
精灵王 更新:2021-04-30 17:23 字数:9322
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Glaucus/or The Wonders of the Shore
nevertheless; owing to certain anatomical peculiarities; he needed one
aperture more than a limpet; so one; if you will examine; has been given
him at the top of his shell。 (15) This is one instance among a thousand
of the way in which a scientific knowledge of objects must not obey; but
run counter to; the impressions of sense; and of a custom in nature which
makes this caution so necessary; namely; the repetition of the same form;
slightly modified; in totally different animals; sometimes as if to avoid
waste; (for why should not the same conception be used in two different
cases; if it will suit in both?) and sometimes (more marvellous by far)
when an organ; fully developed and useful in one species; appears in a
cognate species but feeble; useless; and; as it were; abortive; and
gradually; in species still farther removed; dies out altogether; placed
there; it would seem; at first sight; merely to keep up the family likeness。
I am half jesting; that cannot be the only reason; perhaps not the reason
at all; but the fact is one of the most curious; and notorious also; in
comparative anatomy。
Look; again; at those sea…slugs。 One; some three inches long; of a
bright lemon…yellow; clouded with purple; another of a dingy grey; (16)
another exquisite little creature of a pearly French White; (17) furred all
over the back with what seem arms; but are really gills; of ringed white
and grey and black。 Put that yellow one into water; and from his head;
above the eyes; arise two serrated horns; while from the after…part of his
back springs a circular Prince…of…Wales's…feather of gills; … they are
almost exactly like those which we saw just now in the white Cucumaria。
Yes; here is another instance of the same custom of repetition。 The
Cucumaria is a low radiate animal … the sea…slug a far higher mollusc;
and every organ within him is formed on a different type; as indeed are
those seemingly identical gills; if you come to examine them under the
microscope; having to oxygenate fluids of a very different and more
complicated kind; and; moreover; the Cucumaria's gills were put round
his mouth; the Doris's feathers round the other extremity; that grey
Eolis's; again; are simple clubs; scattered over his whole back; and in
each of his nudibranch congeners these same gills take some new and
fantastic form; in Melibaea those clubs are covered with warts; in
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Scyllaea; with tufted bouquets; in the beautiful Antiopa they are
transparent bags; and in many other English species they take every
conceivable form of leaf; tree; flower; and branch; bedecked with every
colour of the rainbow; as you may see them depicted in Messrs。 Alder
and Hancock's unrivalled Monograph on the Nudibranch Mollusca。
And now; worshipper of final causes and the mere useful in nature;
answer but one question; … Why this prodigal variety? All these
Nudibranchs live in much the same way: why would not the same
mould have done for them all? And why; again; (for we must push the
argument a little further;) why have not all the butterflies; at least all who
feed on the same plant; the same markings? Of all unfathomable
triumphs of design; (we can only express ourselves thus; for honest
induction; as Paley so well teaches; allows us to ascribe such results only
to the design of some personal will and mind;) what surpasses that by
which the scales on a butterfly's wing are arranged to produce a certain
pattern of artistic beauty beyond all painter's skill? What a waste of
power; on any utilitarian theory of nature! And once more; why are
those strange microscopic atomies; the Diatomaceae and Infusoria;
which fill every stagnant pool; which fringe every branch of sea…weed;
which form banks hundreds of miles long on the Arctic sea…floor; and
the strata of whole moorlands; which pervade in millions the mass of
every iceberg; and float aloft in countless swarms amid the clouds of the
volcanic dust; … why are their tiny shells of flint as fantastically various
in their quaint mathematical symmetry; as they are countless beyond the
wildest dreams of the Poet? Mystery inexplicable on the conceited
notion which; making man forsooth the centre of the universe; dares to
believe that this variety of forms has existed for countless ages in
abysmal sea…depths and untrodden forests; only that some few
individuals of the Western races might; in these latter days; at last
discover and admire a corner here and there of the boundless realms of
beauty。 Inexplicable; truly; if man be the centre and the object of their
existence; explicable enough to him who believes that God has created
all things for Himself; and rejoices in His own handiwork; and that the
material universe is; as the wise man says; 〃A platform whereon His
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Eternal Spirit sports and makes melody。〃 Of all the blessings which the
study of nature brings to the patient observer; let none; perhaps; be
classed higher than this: that the further he enters into those fairy
gardens of life and birth; which Spenser saw and described in his great
poem; the more he learns the awful and yet most comfortable truth; that
they do not belong to him; but to One greater; wiser; lovelier than he;
and as he stands; silent with awe; amid the pomp of Nature's ever…busy
rest; hears; as of old; 〃The Word of the Lord God walking among the
trees of the garden in the cool of the day。〃
One sight more; and we have done。 I had something to say; had time
permitted; on the ludicrous element which appears here and there in
nature。 There are animals; like monkeys and crabs; which seem made
to be laughed at; by those at least who possess that most indefinable of
faculties; the sense of the ridiculous。 As long as man possesses
muscles especially formed to enable him to laugh; we have no right to
suppose (with some) that laughter is an accident of our fallen nature; or
to find (with others) the primary cause of the ridiculous in the perception
of unfitness or disharmony。 And yet we shrink (whether rightly or
wrongly; we can hardly tell) from attributing a sense of the ludicrous to
the Creator of these forms。 It may be a weakness on my part; at least I
will hope it is a reverent one: but till we can find something
corresponding to what we conceive of the Divine Mind in any class of
phenomena; it is perhaps better not to talk about them at all; but observe
a stoic 〃epoche;〃 waiting for more light; and yet confessing that our own
laughter is uncontrollable; and therefore we hope not unworthy of us; at
many a strange creature and strange doing which we meet; from the
highest ape to the lowest polype。
But; in the meanwhile; there are animals in which results so strange;
fantastic; even seemingly horrible; are produced; that fallen man may be
pardoned; if he shrinks