•^0 NATURAL THEOLOGY. 



about to produce something which, when produced, was to 

 be preserved and taken care of. Prior to experience, there 

 was nothing to lead to this inference, or to this suspicion. 

 The analogy was all against it ; for, in every other instance, 

 what issued from the body was cast out and rejected. 



But, secondly, let us suppose the egg to be produced into 

 day ; how should birds know that their eggs contain their 

 young ? There is nothing either in the aspect or in the in- 

 ternal composition of an egg which could lead even the most 

 daring imagination to conjecture that it was hereafter to turn 

 out from under its shell a living, perfect bird. The form of 

 the egg bears not the rudiments of a resemblance to that of 

 the bird. Inspecting its contents, we find still less reason, 

 if possible, to look for the result which actually takes place. 

 If we should go so far as, from the appearance of order and 

 distinction in the disposition of the liquid substances which 

 we noticed in the egg, to guess that it might be designed 

 for the abode and nutriment of an animal — which would be 

 a very bold hypothesis — we should expect a tadpole dabbhng 

 in the slime, much rather than a dry, winged, feathered crea- 

 ture, a compound of parts and properties impossible to be 

 used in a state of confinement in the egg, and bearing no 

 conceivable relation, either in quality or material, to nny 

 thing observed in it. From the white of an egg, would any 

 one look for the feather of a goldfinch ; or expect from a 

 simple uniform mucilage the most complicated of all ma- 

 chines, the most diversified of all collections of substances ? 

 lYor would the process of incubation, for some time at least, 

 lead us to suspect the event. Who that saw red streaks 

 shooting in the fine membrane which divides the white from 

 the yolk, would suppose that these were about to become 

 bones and Hmbs? Who that espied two discolored points 

 first making their appearance in the cicatrix, would have 

 had the courage to predict that these points were to grow 

 into the heart and head of a bird ? It is difficult to strip 

 the mind of its experience. It is difficult to resuscitate sur 



