But that a worm belonging to this particular family Amphinomidae living
in the high sea, occurs as a guest in the Lepas, which also floats in
the sea attached to wood, etc., is at once intelligible from the
stand-point of the Darwinian theory, whilst the relationship of this
parasite to the free-living worms of the open sea remains perfectly
unintelligible under the supposition that it was independently created
for dwelling in the Lepas.
But however favourable the examples hitherto referred to may be for
Darwin, the objection may be raised against them, and that with perfect
justice, that they are only isolated facts, which, when the
considerations founded upon them are carried far beyond what is
immediately given, may only too easily lead us from the right path, with
the deceptive glimmer of an ignis fatuus. The higher the structure to be
raised, the wider must be the assuring base of well-sifted facts.
Let us turn then to a wider field, that of the developmental history of
the Crustacea, upon which science has already brought together a varied
abundance of remarkable facts, which, however, have remained a barren
accumulation of unmanageable raw-material, and let us see how, under
Darwin's hand, these scattered stones unite to form a well-jointed
structure, in which everything, bearing and being borne, finds its
significant place.
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