Unweaving the Rainbow This pleasure was not in spite of, but rather because he does not assume as cause the inexplicable actions of a deity but rather the understandable laws of nature. His starting point is John Keats' well-known, light-hearted accusation that Isaac Newton destroyed the poetry of the rainbow by 'reducing it to the prismatic colours.' Dawkins's agenda is to show the reader that science does not destroy, but rather discovers poetry in the patterns of nature. It is of little concern whether or not science can prove that the ultimate fate of the cosmos lacks purpose: we live our lives regardless
The Colours of Animals come into play". To make the point, Wallace lists "the cones, cowries, olives, harps, volutes, pectens, and innumerable other molluscan shells; while many of the sea-anemones, and considerable numbers of the caterpillars with warning colours, are equally beautiful." And that was not all. Wallace continued: "Still more doubtful and more opposed to reasonable probability is the statement that 'our standards of beauty are largely derived from the contemplation of the numerous examples around us, which... have been created by the æsthetic preferences of the insect world'--alluding... to the colours and structures of flowers as being due to the need of