CHAP. VI.

THE ARGUMENT CUMULATIVE,

WERE there no example in the world of contrivance except that of the eye, it would be alone sufficient to support the conclusion which we draw from it, as to the necessity of an intelligent Creator. It could never be got rid of: because it could not be accounted for by any other supposition, which did not contradict all the principles we possess of knowledge; the principles according to which, things do, as often as they can be brought to the test of experience, turn out to be true or false. Its coats and humours, constructed, as the lenses of a telescope are constructed, for the refraction of rays of light to a point, which forms the proper action of the organ; the provision in its muscular tendons for turning its pupil to the object, similar to that which is given to the telescope by screws. and upon which power of direction in the eye, the exercise of its office, as an optical instrument depends; the further provision for its defence, for its constant lubricity and moisture, which we see in its sockets and its lids, in its glands for the secretion of the matter of tears, its outlet or communication with the nose for carrying off the liquid after the eye is washed with it; these provisions compose all together an apparatus, a system of parts, a preparation of means, so manifest in their design, so exquisite in their contrivance, so successful in their issue, so precious and so infinitely beneficial in their use, as, in my opinion, to bear down all doubt that can he raised upon the subject. And what I wish, under the title of the present chapter to observe, is, that, if other parts of nature were inaccessible to our inquiries, or even if other parts of nature presented nothing to our examination but disorder and confusion, the validity of this example would remain the same. If there were but one watch in the world, it would not be less certain that it had a maker. If we had never in our lives seen any but one single kind of hydraulic machine; yet, if of that one kind we understood the mechanism and use. we should be as perfectly assured that it proceeded from the hand, and thought. and skill, of a workman, as if we visited a muscum of the arts, and

saw collected there twenty different kinds of machines for drawing water, or a thousand different kinds for other purposes. Of this point each machine is a proof, independently of the rest. So it is with the evidences of a divine agency. The proof is not a conclusion, which lies at the end of a chain of reasoning, of which chain each instance of contrivance is only a link, and of which, if one link fail, the whole falls; but it is an argument separately supplied by every separate example.-An error in stating an example affects only that example. The argument is 'cumulative in the fullest sense of that term. The eye proves it without the ear; the ear without the eye. The proof in each example is complete; for when the design of the part, and the conduciveness of its structure to that design, is shewn, the mind may set itself at rest: no future consideration can detract any thing from the force of the example.

CHAP. VII.

OF THE MECHANICAL AND IMMECHANICAL PARTS AND
FUNCTIONS OF ANIMALS AND VEGETABLES.

IT is not that every part of an animal or vegetable has not proceeded from a contriving mind; or that every part is not constructed with a view to its proper end and purpose, according to the laws belonging to, and governing the substance or the action made use of in that part; or that each part is not so constructed, as to effectuate its purpose whilst it operates according to these laws: but it is, because these laws themselves are not in all cases equally understood: or, what amounts to nearly the same thing, are not equally exemplified in more simple processes, and more simple machines; that we lay down the distinction, here proposed, between the mechanical parts, and other parts, of animals and vegetables.

For instance; the principle of muscular motion, viz. upon what cause the swelling of the belly of the muscle, and consequently contractions of its tendons, either by an act of the will or by involuntary irritation, depends, is wholly unknown to us. The substance employed, wheth

er it be fluid, gaseous, elastic, electrical, or none of these. or nothing resembling these, is also unknown to us: of course the laws belonging to that substance, and which regulate its action, are unknown to us. We see nothing similar to this contraction in any machine which we can make, or any process which we can execute. So far, (it is confessed,) we are in ignorance: but no further. This power and principle, from whatever cause it proceeds, being assumed, the collocation of the fibres to receive the principle, the disposition of the muscles for the use and application of the power, is mechanical; and is as intelligible as the adjustment of the wires and strings by which a puppet is moved. We see, therefore, as far as respects the subject before us, what is not mechanical in the animal frame, and what is. The nervous influence, (for we are often obliged to give names to things which we know little about,)-1 say the nervous influence, by which the belly or middle of the muscle is swelled, is not mechanical. The utility of the effect we perceive; the means, or the preparation of means, by which it is produced, we do not. But obscurity as to the origin of muscular motion brings no doubtfulness into our observations upon the sequel of the process. Which observations relate, 1st. to the constitution of the muscle; in consequence of which constitution, the swelling of the belly or middle part is necessarily and mechanically followed by a contraction of the tendons: 2dly, to the number and variety of the muscles, and the corresponding number and variety of useful powers which they supply to the animal; which is astonishingly great: 3dly, to the judicious, (if we may be permitted to use that term, in speaking of the author, or of the works, of nature,) to the wise and well contrived disposition of each muscle for its specific purpose; for moving the joint this way, and that way, and the other way; for pulling and drawing the part, to which it is attached, in a determinate and particular direction; which is a mechanical operation, exemplified in a multitude of instances. To mention only one; the tendon of the trochlear muscle of the eye, to the end that it may draw in the line required, is passed through a cartilaginous ring, at which it is reverted, exactly in the same manner as a rope in a ship is carried over a block or round a stay, in order to make it pull in the direction which is wanted. All this, as we have

said, is mechanical: and is as accessible to inspection, as capable of being ascertained, as the mechanism of the automaton in the Strand. Suppose the automaton to be put in motion by a magnet, (which is probable,) it will supply us with a comparison very apt for our present purpose. Of the magnetic effluvium we know perhaps as little as we do of the nervous fluid. But magnetic attraction being -assumed, (it signifies nothing from what cause it proceeds.) we can trace, or there can be pointed out to us, with perfect clearness and certainty, the mechanism, viz. the steel bars, the wheels, the joints, the wires, by which the motion so much admired is communicated to the fingers of the image: and, to make any obscurity, or difficulty, or controversy in the doctrine of magnetism, an objection toour knowledge or our certainty concerning the contrivance, or the marks of contrivance, displayed in the automaton, would be exactly the same thing, as it is to make our ignorance, (which we acknowledge,) of the cause of nervous agency, or even of the substance and structure of the nerves themselves, a ground of question or suspicion as to the reasoning which we institute concerning the mechanical part of our frame. That an animal is a machine, is a proposition neither correctly true, nor wholly false. The distinction which we have been discussing will serve to shew how far the comparison, which this expression im-plies, holds; and wherein it fails. And, whether the distinction be thought of importance or not, it is certainly of importance to remember, that there is neither truth nor justice in endeavoring to bring a cloud over our under-standings, or a distrust into our reasonings upon this subject, by suggesting that we know nothing of voluntary motion, of irritability, of the principle of life, of sensation, of animal heat, upon all which the animal functions depend ; for our ignorance of these parts of the animal frame concerns not at all our knowledge of the mechanical parts of the same frame. I contend, therefore, that there is mechanism in animals; that this mechanism is as properly such, as it is in machines made by art; that this mechanism is intelligible and certain; that it is not the less so, because it often begins or terminates with something which is not mechanical; that whenever it is intelligible and certain, it demonstrates intention and

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contrivance, as well in the works of nature as in those of art; and that it is the best demonstration which either can afford.

But whilst I contend for these propositions, I do not exclude myself from asserting that there may be, and that there are, other cases, in which, although we cannot exhibit mechanism, or prove indeed that mechanism is employed, we want not sufficient evidence to conduct us to the same conclusion.

There is what may be called the chymical part of our frame of which, by reason of the imperfection of our chymistry, we can attain to no distinct knowledge: I mean, not to a knowledge either in degree or kind, similar to that which we possess of the mechanical part of our frame. It does not therefore afford the same species of argument as that which mechanism affords; and yet it may afford an argument in a high degree satisfactory. The gastric juice, or the liquor which digests the food in the stomachs of animals, is of this class. Of all menstrua it is the most active, the most universal. In the human stomach, for instance, consider what a variety of strange substances, and how widely different from one another, it, in a few hours, reduces to one uniform pulp, milk, or mucilage. It seizes upon every thing, it dissolves the texture of almost every thing, that comes in its ways. The flesh of perhaps all animals; the seeds and fruits of the greatest number of plants; the roots and stalks and leaves of many, hard and tough as they are, yield to its powerful pervasion. The change wrought by it is different from any chymical solution which we can produce, or with which we are acquainted, in this respect as well as many others, that, in our chymistry, particular menstrua Consider moreover act only upon particular substances.

that this fluid, stronger in its operation than a caustic alkali or mineral acid, than red precipitate or aqua fortis itself, is nevertheless as mild and bland, and inoffensive to the touch or taste, as saliva or gum water, which it much resembles. Consider, I say, these several properties of the digestive organ, and of the juice with which it is supplied, or rather with which it is made to supply itself, and you will confess it to be entitled to a name, which it has sometimes received, that of "the chymical wonder of anima! nature,"