THE EGG. 361 



one part of the transparent jelly, a little portion 

 which has more consistency than the rest ; hut still 

 a stretch of fancy is needed before it can be called 

 organization of any kind. So that, if a person 

 were to be told that out of those jellies there were 

 to be evolved bones, and muscles or organs of 

 motion, and nerves for sensation, and arteries and 

 veins for circulating blood, and lungs for breath- 

 ing, and air tubes in the bones to insure the same 

 purpose upon emergency; and that there were 

 to be feet for running, or wading in the water, 

 or swimming, or partially for all those pur- 

 poses, according to the habits of some former 

 organized beings, now dead or at a distance ; and 

 wings for flight, and eyes, and nostrils, and ears, 

 and a mouth armed with horny mandibles ; that 

 further, the production was to have the very model 

 of mechanical shape, for enabling it to make its 

 way on the earth, across the waters, or through 

 the air ; and that it was to be clothed with plum- 

 age of the smoothest gloss, and the most brilliant 

 colours ; and that it would in the most unerring 

 manner, select those substances best adapted for 

 its purpose ; and by means of various sets of ap- 

 paratus, each the very best fitted for accomplishing 

 the end with the very least trouble, form them into 

 the very substances of which its own organization 

 were composed ; and not only keep itself in perfect 

 order and repair for its appointed time, but be- 

 come the source of future beings of the same kind, 

 without number and without end, excepting from 

 the bar and hindrance of external circumstances : 

 if a person who was ignorant of eggs, and the re- 

 sults of hatching, were to be told that, or even a 

 small part of it, it would utterly shake his belief 

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