vii CREATION BY LAW 153 



sifted, and levelled designedly; the sides and angles of a 

 crystal exactly resemble similar forms designed by man ; but 

 we do not therefore conclude that these' effects have, in each 

 individual case, required the directing action of a creative 

 mind, or see any difficulty in their being produced by natural 

 law. 



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 conceive a system of the universe so perfect as 

 necessarily 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 Argyll 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 splendour 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 existence 

 than a crest of sapphire. A frill ending in spangles of 

 the emerald is no better in the battle of life than a frill ending 

 in spangles of the ruby. A tail is not affected for the pur- 

 poses of flight, whether its marginal or its central feathers are 

 decorated with white. . . . Mere beauty and mere variety, 

 for their own sake, are objects which we ourselves seek when 

 we can make the forces of nature subordinate to the attain- 

 ment of them. There seems to be no conceivable reason why 

 we should doubt or question that these are ends and aims 



