webbed feet no doubt were as useful to the progenitor of the upland goose
and of the frigate-bird, as they now are to the most aquatic of living
birds. So we may believe that the progenitor of the seal did not possess a
flipper, but a foot with five toes fitted for walking or grasping; and we
may further venture to believe that the several bones in the limbs of the
monkey, horse and bat, were originally developed, on the principle of
utility, probably through the reduction of more numerous bones in the fin
of some ancient fish-like progenitor of the whole class. It is scarcely
possible to decide how much allowance ought to be made for such causes of
change, as the definite action of external conditions, so-called
spontaneous variations, and the complex laws of growth; but with these
important exceptions, we may conclude that the structure of every living
creature either now is, or was formerly, of some direct or indirect use to
its possessor.

With respect to the belief that organic beings have been created beautiful
for the delight of man--a belief which it has been pronounced is subversive
of my whole theory--I may first remark that the sense of beauty obviously
depends on the nature of the mind, irrespective of any real quality in the
admired object; and that the idea of what is beautiful, is not innate or
unalterable. We see this, for instance, in the men of different races
admiring an entirely different standard of beauty in their women. If
beautiful objects had been created solely for man's gratification, it ought
to be shown that before man appeared there was less beauty on the face of
the earth than since he came on the stage. Were the beautiful volute and
cone shells of the Eocene epoch, and the gracefully sculptured ammonites of
the Secondary period, created that man might ages afterwards admire them in
his cabinet? Few objects are more beautiful than the minute siliceous
cases of the diatomaceae: were these created that they might be examined
and admired under the higher powers of the microscope? The beauty in this