generation of plants, in which the machinery was as yet imperfect and
only partly built up. But in such incomplete stages, fertilization would
have been impossible, and therefore the plant must have died out. Just
the same with the curious fly-trap in _Dionoea_. Whatever may be its
benefit to the plant, till the whole apparatus as it now is, was
_complete_, it would have been of no use. In the animal kingdom also,
instances might be given: the giraffe has a long neck which is an
advantage in getting food that other animals cannot reach; but what
would have been the use of a neck which was becoming--and had not yet
become--long? here intermediate stages would not have been useful, and
therefore could not have been preserved.[2] In flat fishes it is curious
that, though they are born with eyes on different sides of the head, the
lower eye gradually grows round to the upper-side. As remarked by Mr.
Mivart, natural selection could not have produced this change, since the
_first steps towards it_ could have been of no possible use, and could
not therefore have occurred, at least not without direction and guidance
from without. Mr. Darwin's explanation of the case does not touch this
difficulty.


[Footnote 1: This species was instanced because the lectures which form
the basis of the book were originally delivered at Simla, in the N.W.
Himalaya, where, at certain seasons, the plant is a common wayside weed.
Mr. Darwin notices a similar and, if possible, more curious structure in
a species of _Catasetum_.]

[Footnote 2: See this fully explained by Mivart, "Genesis of Species,"
pp. 29, 30 (2nd edition).]

(3) The third point, the occurrence of so much _beauty_ in organic life,