constantly supplied, and that which is superfluous is conveyed to the nose through a perforation in the bone.

Observation. Can any pipe for carrying off the waste liquor from a dye-house be more mechanical? The eye requires moisture, but the want cannot generate the gland which produces the tear, or bore the hole by which it is discharged. This provision is not found in fish, because the element in which they live, supplies a constant lotion for the eye.

(2.) Another contrivance is the " nictitating" membrane found in the eyes of birds and of many quadrupeds, which serves to clean the eye, spread it over with the lachrymal humour, and to defend it from injuries. It lies folded up ready for use, and is a combination of muscular and elastic substance; by the former it is capable of being drawn out, and by the lat ter, when the force is removed, it returns to its former position. This surely bespeaks an artist acquainted with his materials. Objection. Why did not the Deity give to the animal the faculty of vision at once?

Answer. It is only by the display of contrivance, that the existence, the agency, the wisdom, of the Deity, could be manifested to his rational creatures. This is the scale by which we ascend to all the knowledge of our creator that we possess, so far as it depends on the works of nature.

15. The structure of the ear will demonstrate the existence of design, as well as that of the eye; it is adapted to the reception of sound, and to convey the impressions to the brain.

Illustration. Besides the external part of the ear, which serves to catch the pulses of the air, of which sound consists, there is a tube which leads into the head; a thin membrane stretched across it; a chain of moveable bones, forming a communication between this membrane and the interior channel of the skull; cavities, similar to wind instruments of music; the eustachian tube, like the hole in a drum, to let the air pass freely into and out of the barrel of the ear, as the membrane vibrates, or as the temperature is altered: the whole is wrought into the substance of the hardest bone.

OF THE SUCCESSION OF PLANTS AND

ANIMALS.

16. The generation of an animal no more accounts for the contrivance of the eye or ear than

the production of a watch (if it were possible) by the motion and mechanism of a former watch would account for the skill and intention evidenced in the watch so produced.

17. This comparison holds to every mode of specific propagation; and what is true of the watch, is true of plants and animals.

18. The seed of a plant contains a particular organization suited to the germination of the new plant; but the plant which produced the seed had no more to do with that organization than the watch would have to do with the structure of the other watch, which should be produced in the course of its mechanical movements.

Illustration. It had nothing to do with the contrivance; the maker and contriver of one watch was, in truth, the maker and contriver of the other watch.

19. From plants we proceed to oviparous animals; from seeds to eggs; the bird has no more concern with the egg she lays than the plant has with that of the seed it drops.

Illustration. The hen cannot alter a single feather of the chick; she can neither foresee nor determine of which sex her brood shall be. The animal functions, and the vegetable functions, are alike destitute of any design that can operate on the form produced.

20. In animals that bring forth their young alive, rationality has nothing to do with the busiThe parent is not the contriver.

ness.

Illustration. The parent is the cause of his offspring in the same sense as that in which a gardener is the cause of the tulip which grows in his garden. The contrivance discovered in the thing produced, wants a contriver who is not the parent; he is ignorant why the thing produced took its present form rather than any other.

21. When we are enquiring simply after the existence of an intelligent creator, imperfection may exist without producing any doubt on the subject: a watch may go wrong, without leading to the suspicion that it was not made, or not made for the purpose ascribed to it.

Illustration. Imperfections are of little weight, when the consideration relates simply to the existence of a Creator; but they bear on the question when the argument respects his attributes: even then, however, they must be taken in conjunction with the unexceptionable evidences of skill, power, and benevolence, displayed in other instances, which may overpower apparent blemishes, and lead us to impute them to some other cause than defect of knowledge, or of benevolence in the author

Objection. It is said, that every thing that exists must have had some form, and it might be the present as well as any other form.

Answer. Apply this to the eye; something must have occupied that place in the animal's head-granted: but that it should have been an eye, consisting of lenses which differ entirely from the substance of which the other parts of the body are composed; of a black cloth [the retina], the only membrane of the body that is black, spread out behind these lenses to receive the images formed by them; and of a large nerve communicating between this membrane and the brain, without which the action of light would be lost to the purposes of sensation that this fortunate conformation should have happened to almost all the individuals of all the species of animals that exist, without design, is too absurd to gain credit.

:

22. Universal experience must exclude chance from the world. Causes, without design, may produce a wen or a wart, but never an eye. A clod might, perhaps, be the effect of chance; but never was a watch, a telescope, or an organized being so formed.

Objection. It has been said that organized bodies are only so many possible varieties and combinations of being, which the lapse of infinite ages has brought into existence.

Answer. (I.) There is no foundation for this conjecture: there are no appearances to support an opinion, that every possible combination of vegetable or animal structure has been tried. (2.) The division of organized substances into animals and vegetables, and the distribution into genera and species, are founded in the order which prevails in external nature; they contradict the supposition of the present world being the remains of an indefinite variety of existences, which rejects all plan.

23. The marks of contrivance discoverable in animal bodies, are proofs of a designing creator.

Objection. It is said, the parts were not intended for use, but that the use rose out of the design.

Answer. Upon this principle, saws, planes, axes, &c. were made without design, and the carpenter turned them, when made, to his account. But could the eye have been formed without a regard to vision; and was it left to the animal to find out that it would serve to see with? The same may be asked of the ear, and the other senses; none of which depend fundamentally on the choice of the animal. It is the impression which objects make upon them that constitute their use; but over the impression he has no power. The same will apply to other parts of the body.

24. Our belief in a designing first cause, ought not to be shaken by bringing forward our ignorance, or the general imperfection of our knowledge of nature. What we know ought not to be disturbed by what we do not know if we perceive an useful end and means adapted to it, we perceive enough for our conclusion.

Illustration. If the utility of vision, and the adaptation of the eye to this office, be evident, it ought not to prejudice the inference that we draw from these premises, that we cannot explain the use of the spleen. The uncertainty of one thing does not necessarily affect the certainty of another thing: it has no connection with it.

Conclusion. If there were no other example in the world of contrivance except that of the eye, it would be sufficient to prove the necessity of an intelligent Creator. Its coats and humours (see Blair's Grammar of Nat. Phil.) constructed like

the lenses of a telescope for the refraction of rays of light-its muscular tendons for turning its pupil to the object, similar to that which is given to the telescope screws-the provision made for its defence, lubricity, and moisture-the gland for the secretion of the matter of tears, and the communication with the nose for carrying off the liquid after the eye is washed with itare provisions which compose an apparatus so manifest in their design, so exquisite in their contrivance, so successful in their issue, and so beneficial in their use, as to bear down all doubt upon the subject.

OF THE

MECHANICAL

AND UNMECHANICAL PARTS AND FUNCTIONS OF ANIMALS AND

VEGETABLES.

25. The disposition of the muscles for the use and application of the power intended is mechanical, and as intelligible as the adjustment of wires and strings by which a puppet is moved: but the nervous influence, by which the middle of the muscle is swelled, is not mechanical.

26. The process of muscular motion relates, (1.) To the constitution of the muscles, of which the swelling of the middle part is mechanically followed by a contraction of the tendons: (2.) To the number of the muscles, and the powers which they supply to the animal: and, (3.) To the wise and well-contrived disposition of each muscle for its specific purpose.

Ex. The tendon of the trochear muscle of the eyes, in order that it may draw in the line required, is passed through a cartilaginous ring, at which it is turned back in the same manner as a rope in a ship is carried over a block, to make it pull in the direction which is wanted.

27. The chemical part of our frame does not afford the same species of argument as that which mechanism affords; yet it is highly satisfactory.