WITHIN THE EGG 



A BIRD'S life begins when there comes about an intimate 

 and orderly union of the maternal and the paternal 

 inheritances the result of which is a new creature, not free 

 to be or do anything it likes (a sort of freedom which has never 

 existed, and would not be worth much if it did), and yet not 

 fated to be a mere echo of its father or its mother, but with 

 some measure of originality, or individuality. It is a new 

 creature, in some ways quite unpredictable, though we may 

 be able to indicate beforehand some of the alternatives of 

 expectation. In this variability we have, in part, the 

 biological basis for the doctrine of personal freedom, which 

 tends to be dimmed by insistence on the inexorable continuity 

 which the hereditary relation also implies. The individual- 

 ised young creature, with a freedom of contingency, at least, 

 acts on and reacts to its nurture, until there is formed a sort 

 of personality, or character. This is a product of the 

 external as well as of the organic heritage and it may lead 

 on to a truer freedom than that of mere contingency. Even 

 in the bird there is a self it may be a very unique self 

 with the power of being and doing differently from 

 its immediate ancestry. In so far as it avails itself of 

 its relative newness to respond or to fail to respond to 

 environmental nurture, there develops an individuality, 

 opposable to the trend of the natural inheritance, even 

 capable of approximating to the ethical idea of freedom. 

 The development of a bird is apparently a very smooth 



nnd orderly process. There are no crises, no sharp turns, as 



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