25O THE REIGN OF LAW. 



colours of their parent, and that even where varia- 

 tions occur, they are inconstant, and tend to dis- 

 appear. We have no knowledge, for example, 

 that from the eggs of the Blue-tailed Sylph a 

 pair of Green-tailed Sylphs can ever be produced. 

 We have no reason to believe that a species of 

 Lophomis with a tippet of emerald spangles, 

 can ever hatch out a pair of young adorned with 

 spangles of some other gem. And yet we cannot 

 assert that such phenomena are impossible, nor 

 can it be denied that, as a matter of speculation, 

 this process is natural and easy of conception, as 

 compared with the idea of each Species being 

 separately called into existence, out of the in- 

 organic elements of which its body is composed. 



Such new births — if they do take place — would 

 perfectly fulfil, I think, the only idea we can ever 

 form of new creations. For example, it would 

 appear that every variety which is to take its place 

 as a new Species must be born male and female ; 

 because it is one of the facts of specific variation 

 in the Humming Birds, that although the male 

 and female plumage is generally entirely different, 

 yet the female of each Species is as distinct from 



