118 MAMMALIAN DESCEXT. [Lect. IV. 



lie down in safety. " Eacli man under his vine and under liis fig tree, 

 none making him afraid," is the favourite image of a simple, but 

 delightful, form of human life. Then each one of these peaceful men 

 may bring home to him, in his quiet nook of pleasant retirement, 

 one who will gradually fill his home with the new and joyous life of 

 a fresh generation. 



But hunger and fear have to be got rid of first. " I must eat my 

 dinner," says the semi-human Caliban. " "\Ve must sleep o' nights," is 

 the remark of the guilty Macbeth. 



Everyone who has watched the habits of the solitary Blackbird 

 or the gregarious Starling will have noticed that they are always on 

 the watch, and that every movement of their most elegant bodies is 

 dictated either by want or fear. Tliat is, before their life has been 

 crowned with the joy of oifspring -, then, indeed, they for a time cast 

 all their care and caution to the wind, and pour out their souls in 

 gladness. So that, to food, and safety, we have to add love of, and 

 delight in, offspring. 



Xow the question arises — Have these marvellously active and 

 suspicious birds always had this perfection of bodily structure, a 

 structiu?e in some cases so perfectly adapted to flight that they can 

 almost do the feat of " Ariel " — " put a girdle round the earth in forty 

 minutes ?" Or is this the ultimate result of a marvellous correspond- 

 ence of the organising power with the surroundings of the creature 1 



The creation of such a creature as a high or cuhninating type of 

 singing-bird, is worthy of a Divine interposition ; but that does not 

 settle the matter — does not answer the question. 



Of this I am certain, that jNature has not failed of a grand purpose 

 if she has succeeded in bringing such a type to i^erfection during the 

 ages that have elapsed since she flooded the old representatives of 

 the modern cane-brakes, that they might reappear, in our time, as coal. 

 That, certainly, is a long period for the modification of an organism, 

 but Xature (or Wisdom), always rejoiced in the habitable parts of the 

 earth, and Her delights, prospectively, were with the sons of men. 

 The analogy of Mature, here, is in perfect harmony with the poetry of 

 the East ; her noblest daughters love their ofi'spring long before their 

 eyes are gladdened with the actual sight of them. 



But ISTature has not worried or fretted herself over her work. 

 Her progress has been as calm as it is purposeful. Of this we have 



