APPLICATION OF FOREGOING PRINCIPLES. 65 



chicken is doing exactly what it continues doing from 

 the moment it is hatched till it dies ; that is to say, 

 attempting to better itself, doing (as Aristotle says 

 all creatures do all things upon all occasions) what it 

 considers most for its advantage under the existing 

 circumstances. What it may think most advantageous 

 will depend, while it is in the eggshell, upon exactly 

 the same causes as will influence its opinions in 

 later life — to wit, upon its habits, its past circum- 

 stances and ways of thinking ; for there is nothing, as . , 

 Shakespeare tells us, good or ill, but thinking makes * . 

 it so. 



The egg thinks feathers much more to its advantage 

 than hair or fur, and much more easily made. If it 

 could speak, it would probably tell us that we could 

 make them ourselves very easily after a few lessons, 

 if we took the trouble to try, but that hair was 

 another matter, which it really could not see how any 

 protoplasm could be got to make. Indeed, during the 

 more intense and active part of our existence, in the 

 earliest stages, that is to say, of our embryological life, 

 we could probably have turned our protoplasm into 

 feathers instead of hair if we had cared about doing 

 so. If the chicken can make feathers, there seems no 

 sufficient reason for thinking that we cannot do so, 

 beyond the fact that we prefer hair, and have preferred 

 it for so many ages, that we have lost the art along 

 with the desire of making feathers, if indeed any of 

 our ancestors ever possessed it. The stuff with which 

 we make hair is practically the same as that with 

 which chickens make feathers. It is nothing but 



