48 THE MEANING OF EVOLUTION 
for the future development of that egg no man has 
yet clearly said. This is not to say that we shall 
never know, still less is it to say that this can never 
be known. Ralph Waldo Emerson has said that there 
is no question propounded by the order of nature 
which the order of nature will not at some time solve. 
If he is right, and I believe he is, we shall at some 
time know how it is that this egg produces this snail. 
But, as I said before, nothing but the frequency with 
which the process goes on under our eyes could pos- 
sibly blind us to the marvel of it. 
The regularity with which each animal reproduces 
its kind is no more surprising than the faithfulness 
of that reproduction. Some of our birds have won- 
derful markings on their plumage. It is astonishing 
to see with what fidelity the feather of a bird may 
reproduce the corresponding feather of its parent. It 
will occur to everyone how, in the human family to 
which he belongs, there is some little peculiarity which, 
while not appearing in every member of the family, 
when it does appear is remarkably uniform. It may 
be only the droop of an eyelid, it may be a tendency 
to lift one side of the lip more than the other, it may 
be the peculiar shape of a certain tooth in the set, 
and yet when it appears it comes with astonishing 
_ similarity in all who possess it. So much for the 
principle of Heredity. 
