282 CREATION BY LAW. 



Beauty in Nature. 



Let us, however, leave this general argument for 

 a while, and turn to another special case, which has 

 been appealed to as conclusive against Mr. Darwin's 

 views. " Beauty " is, to some persons, as great a 

 stumbling-block as " contrivance." They cannot con- 

 ceive a system of the Universe, so perfect, as neces- 

 sarily to develop every form of Beauty, but suppose 

 that when anything specially beautiful occurs, it is a 

 step beyond what that system could have produced, 

 something which the Creator has added for his own 

 delectation. 



Speaking of the Humming Birds, the Duke of Ar- 

 gyll says : " In the first place, it is to be observed of 

 the whole group, that there is no connection which 

 can be traced or conceived, between the splendour of 

 the humming birds and any function essential to their 

 life. If there were any such connection, that splen- 

 dour could not be confined, as it almost exclusively 

 is, to only one sex. The female birds are, of course, 

 not placed at any disadvantage in the struggle for 

 existence by their more sombre colouring." And after 

 describing the various ornaments of these birds, he 

 says : " Mere ornament and variety of form, and these 

 for their own sake, is the only principle or rule with 

 reference to which Creative Power seems to have 

 worked in these wonderful and beautiful birds. . . 

 A crest of topaz is no better in the struggle for ex- 

 istence than a crest of sapphire. A frill ending in 



