| Comparison with 1866 |
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and for the destruction of its prey; but some authors suppose that at the same time this snake
is furnished with a rattle for its own injury, namely, to warn its prey
to escape.
I would almost as soon believe that the cat curls the end of its tail when preparing to spring, in order to warn the doomed mouse. ↑| 2 blocks not present in 1859 1860 1861 1866 1869; present in 1872 | | It is a much more probable view that the rattlesnake uses its rattle, the cobra expands its frill, and the puff-adder swells whilst hissing so loudly and harshly, in order to alarm the many birds and beasts which are known to attack even the most venomous species.
Snakes act on the same principle which makes the hen ruffle her feathers and expand her wings when a dog approaches her chickens; but I have not space here to enlarge on the many ways by which animals endeavour to frighten away their enemies.
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| Natural selection will never produce in a being anything injurious to itself,
for natural selection acts solely by and for the good of each. No organ will be formed, as Paley has remarked, for the purpose of causing pain or for doing an injury to its possessor. If a fair balance be struck between the good and evil caused by each part, each will be found on the whole advantageous. After the lapse of time, under changing conditions of life, if any part comes to be injurious, it will be modified; or if it be not so, the being will become extinct,
as myriads have become extinct. |
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Natural selection will never produce in a being anything injurious to itself, for natural selection acts solely by and for the good of each. No organ will be formed, as Paley has remarked, for the purpose of causing pain or for doing an injury to its possessor. If a fair balance be struck between the good and evil caused by each part, each will be found on the whole advantageous.
↑| 1 blocks not present in 1866 1869 1872; present in 1859 1860 1861 | | After the lapse of time, under changing conditions of life, if any part comes to be injurious, it will be modified; or if it be not so, the being will become extinct, as myriads have become extinct.
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Natural selection
will not produce absolute perfection, nor do we always meet, as far as we can judge, with this high standard under nature. | will not produce absolute perfection, nor do we always meet, as far as we can judge, with this high standard under nature. 1866 |
| tends only to make each organic being as perfect as, or slightly more perfect than, the other inhabitants of the same country with which it has to struggle for existence. 1859 1860 1861 1869 |
| tends only to make each organic being as perfect as, or slightly more perfect than, the other inhabitants of the same country with which it comes into competition. 1872 |
| 3 blocks not present in 1866; present in 1859 1860 1861 1869 1872 | | And we see that this is the degree
of perfection attained under nature.
The endemic productions of New Zealand, for instance, are perfect one compared with another; but they are now rapidly yielding before the advancing legions of plants and animals introduced from Europe.
Natural selection will not produce absolute perfection, nor do we always meet, as far as we can judge, with this high standard under nature.
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| 2 blocks not present in 1859 1860 1861 1866 1869; present in 1872 | | Helmholtz, whose judgment no one will dispute, after describing in the strongest terms the wonderful powers of the human eye, adds these remarkable words:
"That which we have discovered in the way of inexactness and imperfection in the optical machine and in the image on the retina, is as nothing in comparison with the incongruities which we have just come across in the domain of the sensations. One might say that nature has taken delight in accumulating contradictions in order to remove all foundation from the theory of a pre-existing harmony between the external and internal worlds."
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| contrivances 1859 1860 1861 1866 1872 | | con- trivances 1869 |
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