Well, never mind the rest. Now listen to our definition of an Egg. The word itself, we may observe first of all, is of Saxon origin; that this is how the ancient dwellers on our island used to write it aeg, you may call it _aeg_ or _oeg_, which you like. Johnson says the term means, "That which is laid by feathered and some other animals, from which their young is produced;" it is also, we are told by the same authority, "the spawn or sperm of other creatures," as fish, which are said, you know, not to lay eggs, but to _spawn_. Another dictionary-maker defines it to be "the _ovum_ of birds," giving us here the Latin for egg, hence that peculiar shape is called _oval_, and the science of eggs is sometimes termed OVOLOGY. As we have told you in the first volume of this series, _Oology_ is another term for this science, which has occupied the attention of many learned men, who have gone deeper into Eggs than ever you or I shall, and told us such strange things about them, as would scarcely be believed by the very hens that laid them. Little does the happy mother think, when she goes cackling about the yard, proclaiming the event, that she has produced such a wonderful object. It looks a simple affair enough, one might make a thing very like it with a piece of chalk; touch it, roll it about; boil it, eat it, or crack it, and let the inside flow out; there's the yellow, and there's the white; there's nothing very particular in that, all eggs are so. Well, who made them so? and of what _are_ they made? and what reason is there for this peculiar arrangement of the different parts of an Egg? and how is it that, under certain circumstances, so complete a change should take place in the nature of its contents--that the fluids should be gradually absorbed into a solid body, and that, by and by, at the end of a period which can be calculated to a nicety, the shell should be burst open, and there should come forth a living creature? Truly this _is_ wonderful; but we are surrounded by wonders, and only heed them not because they are so common. _Common_ is the vital air, _Common_ is the azure sky, _Common_ flowers are everywhere, _Common_ stars shine out on high: Music of the forest bird, Cometh without stint or measure, Friendly smile and loving word, _Common_ are as joy and pleasure; Why from _common_ things then turn, And for the _uncommon_ yearn?