these may be much better than
no crest at all; and the different conditions under which the parent
form must have existed in different parts of its range, will have
determined different variations of tint, either of which were
advantageous. The reason why female birds are not adorned with equally
brilliant plumes is sufficiently clear; they would be injurious, by
rendering their possessors too conspicuous during incubation. Survival
of the fittest, has therefore favoured the development of those dark
green tints on the upper surface of so many female humming birds, which
are most conducive to their protection while the important functions of
hatching and rearing the young are being carried on. Keeping in mind the
laws of multiplication, variation, and survival of the fittest, which
are for ever in action, these varied developments of beauty and
harmonious adjustments to conditions, are not only conceivable but
demonstrable results.

The objection I am now combating is solely founded on the supposed
analogy of the Creator's mind to ours, as regards the love of Beauty for
its own sake; but if this analogy is to be trusted, then there ought to
be no natural objects which are disagreeable or ungraceful in our eyes.
And yet it is undoubtedly the fact that there are many such. Just as
surely as the Horse and Deer are beautiful and graceful, the Elephant,
Rhinoceros, Hippopotamus, and Camel are the reverse. The majority of
Monkeys and Apes are not beautiful; the majority of Birds have no beauty
of colour; a vast number of Insects and Reptiles are positively ugly.
Now, if the Creator's mind is like ours, whence this ugliness? It is
useless to say "that is a mystery we cannot explain," because we have
attempted to explain one-half of creation by a method that will not
apply to the other half. We know that a man with the highest taste and
with unlimited wealth, practically does abolish all ungraceful and
disagreeable forms and colours from his own domains. If the beauty of
creation is to be explained by the Creator's love of beauty, we are
bound to ask why he has not banished deformity from the earth, as the
wealthy and enlightened man does from his estate and from his dwelling;
and if we can get no satisfactory answer, we shall do well to reject the
explanation offered. Again, in the case of flowers, which are always
especially referred to, as the surest evidence of beauty being an end of
itself in creation, the whole of the fa