Page:The Works of William Harvey (part 1 of 2).djvu/526

 this line or in that; as if nature had intended that he who could best defend himself and his, should be preferred to others for the continuance of the kind. And indeed all animals which are better furnished with weapons of offence, and more warlike than others, fall out and fight, either in defence of their young, of their nests or dens, or of their prey ; but more than all for the possession of their females. Once vanquished, they yield up possession of these, lay aside their strut and haughty de- meanour, and, crest-fallen and submissive, they seem to con- sume with grief; the victor, on the contrary, who has gained possession of the females by his prowess, exults and boastfully proclaims the glory of his conquest.

Nor is this ornamenting anything adventitious and for a season only ; it is a lasting and special gift of nature, who has not been studious to deck out animals, and especially birds only, but has also thrown an infinite variety of beautiful dyes over the lowly and insensate herbs and flowers.

EXERCISE THE FIFTY-SEVENTH.

Of certain paradoxes and problems to be considered in connexion with this subject.

Thus far have we spoken of the order of generation, whereby the differences between those creatures that are engendered by metamorphosis and those that are developed by epigenesis, as well as between those that are said to proceed from a worm and those that arise from an egg, have been made to appear. The latter are partly incorporated from a prepared matter, and are nourished and increased from a certain remaining matter; the former are incorporated from the whole of the matter present; the latter grow and are formed simultaneously, and after their birth continue to wax in size and finally attain maturity; the former increase at once, and from a grub or caterpillar grow into an aurelia, and are then produced, con- summately formed, as butterflies, moths, and the like. Where- fore Aristotle, as Fabricius 1 observes : " As he assigns a sort

1 Fabricius, Op. cit. p. 46.