360 THE EGG. 



the action of the parent plant. In that state it is an 

 independent being, and is separated from its con- 

 nexion with the parent. 



External causes to stimulate it into action are 

 all that are now required for bringing it to the 

 same state as the parent, but it must have the 

 stimulus of these, otherwise it not only remains 

 inactive, but becomes putrid yields to the laws 

 of matter, and passes into the mass of materials. 

 It may be kept perfect for a considerable time, if 

 the air is completely excluded, but there is reason 

 to suppose, that it would in time undergo internal 

 decomposition even then, in much less time than 

 the seed of a plant, if so protected, would take be- 

 fore it lost the power of germination. 



But still the egg is a very wonderful thing ; 

 and were it not that we are so familiar with it, 

 we would go farther to see it than to see most of 

 the subjects which engage our attention. It is 

 handsome in its form, and every way beautiful to 

 look at ; so that a collection of eggs forms by no 

 means an uninteresting cabinet if the possessor 

 can tell the tales of the birds. But the wonderful 

 part of the matter is, that a body of the form of a 

 pebble, and consisting of a thin shell of lime, lined 

 with a soft membrane, and having within it first a 

 transparent and then a yellow jelly, should have 

 the power, by the action of heat and air alone, of 

 evolving a vast number of animal organs and sub- 

 stances, all differing from each other in different 

 kinds of eggs ; but never deviating so far from 

 the characters of the parent birds, as that they 

 cannot be instantly discerned to belong to the 

 same species, and display to a very great extent 

 the same phenomena, and the same habits. A 

 careful observer may indeed find that there is in 



