yet is this change of place in the image distinctly perceived throughout its whole progress; for it is only by means of that perception, that the motion of the coach itself is made sensible to the eye. If any thing can abate our admiration of the smallness of the visual tablet, compared with the extent of vision, it is a reflection, which the view of nature leads us, every hour, to make, viz. that, in the hands of the Creator, great and little are nothing."

After a satisfactory reply to an objection, which the author thinks may possibly be raised from the use of such a complicated apparatus as the eye, when it must have been in the power of the Deity to have given the animal the faculty of vision at once; we are led to the consideration of the ear. Of this we know less, yet sufficient to prove a wise adapation to a useful purpose. It is there clearly shewn, that the generation of the animal, will by no means account for the contrivance of these organs; that every observation that had been made concerning the watch, at the opening of the argument, applies, with strict propriety, to animals, to plants, and to all the organized parts of

the works of nature; and that all the hypotheses that can be maintained to account for the phænomena of organized matter, which exclude the agency of intelligence, are vain and absurd.

The sixth chapter is entitled, The argument cumulative, and is designed to shew, 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 one such example in the eye would remain the same. The object of the seventh chapter is "To teach three things: first, that it is 2 mistake to suppose, that, in reasoning from the appearances of nature, the imperfection of our knowledge proportionably alects the certainty of our conclusion; for in many cases it does not affect it at all: secondly, that the different parts of the animal frime may be classed and distributed, according to the degree of exactness with which we can compare them with works of art: thirdly, that the mechanical parts of our frame, or, those in which this comparison is most complete, although constituting, probably, the coarsest portions of nature's workmanship, are the properest to be alledged as proofs and specimens of design."

From this class, therefore, of mechanical parts of the hunian frame, the

author proceeds, in the three succeeding chapters, to select such examples as are that are capable of explanation without most striking and best understood, or plates or figures, or technical language. These examples are taken from the bones, the muscles, and the vessels of the human frame. From the bones are selected the vertebræ of the neck; the construction of which is most evidently artificial; the fore-arm, or, the arm between the elbow and the wrist, which consists of two bones, moved by means of a most curious, yet simple contrivance the spine or back bone, which considered in its articulations, its ligaments, and its perforation; with the corresponding advantages which the body derives from it, for action, for strength, and for that which is essential to every part, a secure communication with the brain, cannot fail to excite the highest admiration-the reciprocal enlargement and contraction of the chest, depending upon a very beautiful contrivance, the patella or knee-pan, in its form and office, unlike any other bone of the body, serving for protection, and mechanical advantage, and the shuller-blade. Next to the configuration of the bones, come to be considered the trivance to suffer the vessels to pass them curious structure of the joints, the conin security, the gristle, the cartilages, and the regular supply of mucilage, by which they are rendered capable of such long and constant wear.

important vessels of the human frame, The care exhibited to preserve the is thus strikingly shewn:

"The joints, or rather the ends of the bones which form them, display also, in their configuration, another use. The nerves, blood vessels, and tendons, which are necessary to the life, or for the motion, of the limbs, must, it is evident, in their way from the trunk of the body to the place of their destination, travel over the moveable joints; and it is no less evident, that, in this part of their course, they will have, from sudden motions and from abrupt changes of curvature, to encounter the danger of compression, attrition, or laceration. To guard fibres so tender against conse quences so injuriers, their path is in those parts protected with peculiar care: and that by a provision in the figure of the bones themselves. The nerves which supply the fare arm, especially the inferior cubital nerves, are at the elbow conducted, by a kind of covered way, between the condyla

cy

Or rather under the inner extuberances of the bone, which composes the upper part of the arm. At the knee the extremity of the thigh-bone is divided by a sinus or cleft, into two heads or protuberances; and these heads on the back part stand out beyond the linder of the bone. Through the hallow, which lies between the hind parts of these two heads, that is to say, under the ham, between the ham-strings, and within the concave recess of the bone formed by the extuberances on each side; in a word, along a defile, between rocks, pass the great vessels and nerves which go to the legt. Who led these vessels by a road so defended and secured? In the joint at the shoulder, in the edge of the cup which receives the head of the bone, is a notch, which is joined or covered at the top with a ligament. Through this hole, thus guarded, the blood-vessels

steal to their destination in the arm, instead of mounting over the edge of the concavity."

The ninth chapter, relating to the muscles, is highly curious and satis factory. The exact relation which they bear to the joint that they are designed to move; the manner in which their action is performed; their careful disposition so as not to obstruct or interfere with one another's action, though amounting in number to four hundred and forty-six; their being formed and placed so as to act where their situation would have been inconvenient, or destroyed the beauty and proportions of the body; and the great mechanical variety in their figure, prove them to be the result of counsel and contrivance, and forcibly lead the mind to the acknowledgment of an intelligent Creator.

66

"The ejaculations can never too often be repeated, How many things must go right for us to be an hour at ease! How many more, to be vigorous and active!" Yet, vigor and activity are, in a vast plurality of instances, preserved in human bodies, notwithstanding that they depend upon so great a number of instruments of motion, and notwithstanding that the defect or disorder sometimes of a very small instrument, of a single pair, for instance, out of the four Eundred and forty-six muscles which are employed, may be attended with grievous inconveniency. There is piety and good sense in the following observation taken out of the Religious Philosopher. "With much Compression," says the writer, "as well as astonishment at the goodness of our loving Crater, have I considered the sad state of a

* Chea, An. p. 255, ed. 7th.

certain gentleman, who, as to the, rest, was in pretty good health, but only wanted the use of these two little muscles that serve to lift up the eye-lids, and so had almost lost the use of his sight, being forced, as long as this defect lasted, to shove up his eye-lids every moment with his own hands!" In general we may remark how little those who enjoy the perfect use of their organs, know the comprehensiveness of the blessing, the variety of their obligation. They perceive a result, but they think little of the multitude of concurrences and rectitudes which go to form it."

From a general view of the mus cles of the human frame, the author proceeds to notice such as possess a peculiar advantage of structure and such single muscles (as the digastric, which moves the lower jaw) which bear peculiar marks of mechanical contrivance.

The next chapter treats of the vessels necessary to the circulation of the blood; of those by which the chyle is formed and conveyed into the circulation of the process of digestion, of the wonderful contrivance of the gall-bladder, of the pipe by which the saliva is conveyed to the mouth, and of the exquisite structure of the larynx. The mind that can peruse this chapter, without feeling persuasion of the existence of supreme intelligence, and the deepest veneration and the most ardent gratitude, must be a stranger to the most important affections of human nature. The conclusion is just and forcible:

"For the sake of method, we have considered animal bodies under three divisions, their bones, their muscles, and their vessels: and we have stated our observations upon these parts separately. But this is to diminish the strength of the argument. The wisdom of the Creator is seen, not in their separate but in their collective action; in their mutual subserviency and dependence; in their contributing together to one effect, and one use. It has been said, that a man cannot lift his hand to his head, without finding enough to convince him of the existence of a God. And it is well said, for he has only to reflect, familiar as this action is, and simple as it seems to be, how many things are requisite for the performing of it; how many things which we understand, to say nothing of many more, probably, which we do not, viz. first, a long, hard, strong cylinder, in order to give to the arm its firmness and tension; but which, being rigid, and, in its substance, inflexible, can

+ Ib. p. 35.

A

only turn upon joints: secondly, therefore, joints for this purpose, one at the shoulder to raise the arm, another at the elbow to bend it; these joints continually fed with a soft mucilage to make the parts slip easily strong braces to keep them in their position: upon one another, and held together by then, thirdly, strings and wires, i. e. muscles and tendons, artificially inserted for the purpose of drawing the bones in the directions in which the joints allow them to move. Hitherto we seem to understand the mechanism pretty well; and understanding this, we possess enough for our conclusion: nevertheless, we have hitherto only a machine standing still; a dead organization; an apparatus. To put the system in a state of activity (to set it at work) a further provision is necessary, viz. a communication with the brain, by means of nerves. We know the existence of this communication, because we see the communicating threads, and can trace them to the brain its necessity we also know, because, if the thread be cut, if the communication be intercepted, the muscle becomes paralytic: but beyond this we know little; the orga nization being too minute and subtile for our inspection.

can

"To what has been enumerated, as officiating in the single act of a man's raising his hand to his head, must be added likewise, all that is necessary, and all that contributes, to the growth, nourishment, and sustentation of the limb, the repair of its waste, the preservation of its health; such as the circulation of the blood through every part of it; its lymphatics, exhalants, absorbents; its excretions and integuments. All these share in the result; join in the effect: and how all these, or any of them, come together without a designing, disposing intelligence, it is impossible to conceive.

From considering the mechanism of the human frame in its several parts, we are next led, chap. xi. to contemplate the animal structure, regarded as a mass. Here we cannot fail to be much struck by the exact correspondency of the two sides of an animal, by the curious package, or arrangement of the internal parts, by the symmetry of the external covering, which conceals a mechanism, the constant operations of which, if exposed to view, would keep us in a state of perpetual alarm. The power which this mass possesses, of preserving an erect posture, especially in two-legged animals, is more curious than we are generally aware of; and the teeth, nails and skull exhibit deviations from the general conformation that prove the existence of design.

the human frame, is observed to prevail The general plan in the mechanism of in all animal bodies, yet with such vaexigency of different subjects. This af riations as are required by the particular fords, if possible, a still stronger evidence of intelligence and design. In chapter xii. entitled Comparative Anatomy, the variations are pointed out, as they occur in the covering of the different animals, in the structure of the mouth, the gullet, the intestines, the bones, the lungs, in the instruments of motion, and in what are called the five senses. Besides the variations which are discovered from an anatomical comparison of one animal with another, there are many interesting examples to be found of a peculiar organization, adapted to the peculiar nature and wants of different creatures. Some of the most extraordinary of these form the subject of the thirteenth chapter,

Another mark of design (chap. xiv.) is exhibited in what Dr. P. calls Prospective Contrivances, i. e. the providing be used until a considerable time afterof things beforehand, which are not to wards. From a variety of examples, are selected the following: the human teeth; the milk of the female parent the eye, at the time of its formation of no use; and the lungs. In the formation of these there is implied a contemplation of the future, which belongs only to intelligence.

The application of the original argument is carried still further in the next chapter, which treats of relations, or the fitness of different parts in the anímat frame to one another, for producing a particular effect. These relations are either general or particular: to the first may be referred the parts and powers in the animal ceconomy that necessarily act upon food, the relation of the kidneys to the bladder, and of the ureters to both; the position of the eyes; the relation of one sex to another: " explicable without design; so much so, that were every other proof of contrivance in nature, dubious or obscure— this alone would be sufficient:" and lastly, the relation which the teats of animals bear to the mouth of the suck, ling progeny. Of particular relations, the swan and the mole exhibit the most striking.

in

There is also another species of rela

i