320 ON GENERATION. 



although the egg be very large in comparison with the body 

 and the orifice of the uterus, and it does nothing to further its 

 exit, (as is customary with the young of viviparous animals,) yet 

 she brings forth easily and without pain, and immediately after- 

 wards commences her exultations ; and with her loud cackling 

 calls the cock as it seems to share in her triumph. 



But, although many rudiments of eggs are found in the hen's 

 ovary, of various sizes and in different stages, so that some 

 are larger and nearer to maturity than others, yet all of them 

 appear to be fecundated, or to receive the prolific faculty from 

 the tread of the cock at the same time and in the same degree. 

 And though a considerable time elapse (namely, thirty or more 

 days) before the common hen or hen-partridge lay all the eggs 

 which she has conceived, yet in a stated time after the mother 

 has begun to sit upon them (say twenty or two and twenty 

 days) all the young are hatched nearly at the same time ; nor 

 are they less perfect than if they had commenced their origin 

 simultaneously, from the period of one and the same concep- 

 tion, as the whelps of bitches do. 



And while we are here, and while I think how small are the 

 prolific germs of eggs, mere papulae and exudations less than 

 millet-seeds, and contemplate the full proportions of the cock 

 that springs from thence, his fine spirit, and his handsome 

 plumage, I cannot but express my admiration that such strength 

 should be reposed in the nature of things in such insignificant 

 elements, and that it has pleased the omnipotent Creator out 

 of the smallest beginnings to exhibit some of his greatest works. 

 From a minute and scarce perceptible papula springs the hen, 

 or the cock, a proud and magnificent creature. From a small 

 seed springs a mighty tree ; from the minute gemmule or apex 

 of the acorn, how wide does the gnarled oak at length extend 

 his arms, how loftily does he lift his branches to the sky, how 

 deeply do his roots strike down into the ground ! " It is in 

 truth a great miracle of nature," says Pliny, 1 " that from so 

 small an origin is produced a material that resists the axe, 

 and that supplies beams, masts, and battering-rams. Such is 

 the strength, such the power of nature ! " But in the seeds 

 of all plants there is a gemmule or bud of such a kind, so 



1 Lib. xvii, cap. 10. 



