THE PHILOSOPHY OF BIKDS' NESTS. 225 



round upon them in every direction, so as to get it 

 quite firm and smooth before raising the sides. These 

 were added bit by bit, trimmed and beaten with the 

 wings and feet, so as to felt the whole together, pro- 

 jecting fibres being now and then worked in with the 

 bill. By these simple and apparently inefficient means, 

 the inner surface of the nest was rendered almost as 

 smooth and compact as a piece of cloth. 



Man's Works mainly Imitative. 



But look at civilised man ! it is said ; look at Grecian, 

 and Egyptian, and Roman, and Gothic, and modern Ar- 

 chitecture ! What advance ! what improvement ! what 

 refinements ! This is what reason leads to, whereas 

 birds remain for ever stationary. If, however, such 

 advances as these are required, to prove the effects of 

 reason as contrasted with instinct, then all savage and 

 many half-civilized tribes have no reason, but build in- 

 stinctively quite as much as birds do. 



Man ranges over the whole earth, and exists under 

 the most varied conditions, leading necessarily to 

 equally varied habits. He migrates he makes wars 

 and conquests one race mingles with another dif- 

 ferent customs are brought into contact the habits of 

 a migrating or conquering race are modified by the 

 different circumstances of a new country. The civilized 

 race which conquered Egypt must have developed its 

 mode of building in a forest country where timber 

 was abundant, for it is not probable that the idea of 

 cylindrical columns originated in a country destitute 



Q 



