28H Proceedings of the Royal Society 
local varieties near Bogota, in which the ornament is partially 
changing from blue to green ; and it is a curious fact, that this 
variation appears to be taking effect under the direction of some 
definite rule or “ law,” — inasmuch as it is only the eight central 
feathers of the tail which are tipped with the new colour. Mr 
Grould expressly says of one such variety from Ecuador, that it 
possesses characters so distinctive as to entitle it, in his opinion, 
to the rank of a separate species. The very discussion of such a 
question shows the possibility of new births being the means of 
introducing new species. But my object here is simply to point 
out that Mr Darwin’s theory offers no explanation of such births, 
either as respects their origin or their preservation, neither does it 
even approach to tracing these births to any physical law whatever. 
It fails also to recognise, even if it does not exclude, the relation 
which the birth of new species has to the mental purpose of pro- 
ducing mere beauty and mere variety. Nevertheless it may be 
true that ordinary generation has been the instrument employed ; 
but if so, it must be employed under extraordinary conditions, and 
directed to extraordinary results. 
The only senses, therefore, in which we get any glimpse of 
creation by law are these — Is^, That the close physical connec- 
tion between different specific forms is probably due to the opera-, 
tion of some force or forces common to them all ; 2d, That these 
forces have been employed and worked with others equally un- 
known, for the attainment of such ends as the multiplication of 
life, in forms fitted for new spheres of employment, and for the 
display of new kinds of beauty. 
Is there anything in this conclusion to conflict with such know- 
ledge as we have from other sources of the nature and working 
of creative power ? I do not know on what authority it is that 
we so often speak as if creation were not creation, unless it works 
from nothing as its material, and by nothing as its means. We 
know that out of the “dust of the ground,” that is, out of the 
ordinary elements of nature, are our own bodies formed, and the 
bodies of all living things. Nor is there anything which should 
shock us in the idea that the creation of new forms, any more 
than their propagation, has been brought about by the use and 
instrumentality of means. In a theological point of view it matters 
