we get no answer; but if we ask
how he does it, we find out that he stores up food in his den, hence
must take a lunch between his naps. The woodchuck hibernates, also, but
he stores up fuel in the shape of fat in his own body. The porcupine is
above ground and active all winter. He survives by gnawing the bark of
certain trees, probably the hemlock. We have two species of native mice
that look much alike, the white-footed mouse and the jumping, or
kangaroo, mouse. The white-foot is active the season through, over and
under the snow; the jumper hibernates all winter, and apparently
accomplishes the feat by the power he has of barely keeping the spark of
life burning. His fires are banked, so to speak; his temperature is very
low, and he breathes only at long intervals.

If, then, we ask with Emerson, "_why_ Nature loves the number five," and
"_why_ the star form she repeats," we shall be put to it for an answer.
We can only say that with living things odd numbers are more likely to
prevail, and with non-living, even numbers.

Some seeds have wings and some have not. To ask why, is a blind
question, but if we ask _how_ the wingless seeds get sown, we may add to
our knowledge.

In our own practical lives, in which experimentation plays such a part,
we are often compelled to ask why this result and not that, why this
thing behaves this way and that thing that way. We are looking for
reasons or causes. The farmer asks why his planting in this field was a
failure, while it was a success in the next field, and so on. An
analysis of his soil or of his fertilizer and culture will give him the
answer.

V. AN INSOLUBLE PROBLEM

That Darwin was a great natural philosopher and a good and wise man
admits of no question, but to us, at this distance, it seems strange
enough that he should have thought that he had hit upon the key to the
origin of species in the slow and insensible changes which he fancied
species underwent during the course of the geologic ages, and should
thus have used the phrase as the title of his book. Had he called his
work the "Variability of Species," or the "Modification of Species," it
would not have been such a misnomer. Sudden mutations give us new
varieties, but not new species. In fact, of the origin of species we
know absolutely nothing, no more than we do about the origin of life
itself.

Of the development of species we know some of the factors that play a
part, as the influence of environm