All for a Purpose.

Thames Star, Volume XIX, Issue 5658, 16 March 1887, Page 1

All for a Purpose.

In a conversation drifting toward the many wise provisions of nature, the Her. Mr Mackay said : ' The other day, in my intellectual excursions, I came across a wonderfully sensible paper treating of the nse of snakes. The long black snake is especially useful. He goes into the dense swamps, worms himself among the reeds and flags and devours thousands of scorpions and lizards, which without his timely interference would become too numerous. So, you see everything, even the. black snake, is useful, being created for a purP se. 1

4 This is all very well,' one of the reverend gentlemen's listeners replied. 'We recognize the usefulness of the snake, because he devours scorpions and lizards, but of what use, pray tell me, are the scorpions and lizards.'

' They eat innumerable insects,' the minister triumphantly replied. ' All right, but of what use are the insects ?'

4 The insects ? Why er—they serve as food for the lizards.'

' Yes, but of what use are the lizards?'

' Why, you must be blind not to see that they serve as food for the snakes.'

'Of course, I see that, hut that only brings up the question, of what use are the snakes?'

'Toeat ibe lizards, I tell you. My dear sir,'the minister added, 'it is not strange that philosophy advances so slowly when we think of man's narrowness of understanding.'