CREATION BY LAW. 289 
we have only to breed it in sufficient quantities and 
watch carefully, and the required variety is always 
found, and can be increased to almost any desired ex- 
tent. In Sheep, we get flesh, fat, and wool; in Cows, 
milk; in Horses, colour, strength, size, and speed; in 
Poultry, we have got almost any variety of colour, 
curious modifications of plumage, and the capacity of 
perpetual egg-laying. In Pigeons we have a still 
more remarkable proof of the universality of varia- 
tion, for it has been at one time or another the fancy 
of breeders to change the form of every part of 
these birds, and they have never found the required 
variations absent. The form, size, and shape of bill 
and feet, have been changed to such a degree as is 
found only in distinct genera of wild birds; the num- 
ber of tail feathers has been increased, a character 
which is generally one of the most permanent nature, 
and is of high importance in the classification of 
birds; and the size, the colour, and the habits, have 
been also changed to a marvellous extent. In Dogs, 
the degree of modification and the facility with which 
it is effected, is almost equally apparent. Look at 
the constant amount of variation in opposite direc- 
tions that must have been going on, to develop the 
poodle and the greyhound from the same original 
stock! Instincts, habits, intelligence, size, speed, 
form, and colour, have always varied, so as to produce 
the very races which the wants or fancies or passions 
of men may have led them to desire. Whether they 
wanted a bull-dog to torture another animal, a grey- 
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