When science starts to be interpretive
it is more unscientific even than
mysticism.
To make self-preservation and self-protection the first
law of
existence
is about as scientific as making suicide the first law of
existence,
and amounts to very much the same thing.
A nightingale singing at the top of his voice
is neither hiding himself nor preserving himself nor
propagating
his species;
he is giving himself away in every sense of the word
and obviously, it is the culminating point of his
existence.
A tiger is striped and golden for his own
glory.
He would certainly be much more invisible if he were
grey-green.
And I don’t suppose the ichthyosaurus sparkled like
the
humming-bird,
no doubt he was khaki-coloured with muddy protective
coloration,
so why didn’t he survive?
As a matter of fact, the only creatures that seem to
survive
are those that give themselves away in flash and sparkle
and gay flicker of joyful life;
those that go glittering abroad
with a bit of splendour.
Even mice play quite beautifully at shadows,
and some of them are brilliantly piebald.
I expect the dodo looked like a clod,
a drab and dingy bird.