COMPENDIUM. 261 



rence, and coherence of certain indescribable atomic molecules, constituted 

 the corporeal frame by their union. Some find its origin in a speck, alike 

 unintelligible, among an imaginary mucus left on the shore, between sea 

 and land, by the receding tide : some, unable to figure an active cause, 

 maintain the self-existence of the worldly tenants from all eternity ; while 

 some discover the state of present perfection, from the throes of Nature 

 having gradually completed the defective organs of primitive creatures by 

 progressive developments. 



But how could any or all of these effects have succeeded ? Neither 

 the confluence nor the coherence of unknown atoms, could have acciden- 

 tally adjusted personal symmetry. They were incapable of thus leaving a 

 cavity in the breast, to be afterwards occupied by the heart, or the brain 

 to be covered by a protecting bone : nor could numerous channels be 

 moulded, and then a vital fluid provided to fill them, for conveyance to the 

 most distant extremities. Neither could the numerous nerves transmitting 

 sensations have thus issued from the preceding most important part of 

 organization. 



No fortuitous confluence, or combination under any known or con- 

 jectured physical powers, could have fashioned the mechanism of the eye, 

 or have prepared a place for its reception, connected with the brain. What 

 possible concurrence, arrangement, or artifice, could construct an organ 

 capable of bringing the knowledge of inaccessible, distant objects, as if in 

 contact, to the mind of man ? 



If the reciprocal attraction and the spontaneous adhesion of the par- 

 ticles of matter can compose a definite form, — it is inanimate and perish- 

 able, — ready to be resolved into elements, from which precisely the like 

 in figure and quantity may never result again. 



But the animal frame is far from the product of fortuitous combina- 

 tions : it is manifestly the work of some grand premeditated design. All 

 its parts are relative and reciprocal : a specific purpose is effected equally 

 by each and by their united co-operation. 



Still would the end and purpose of the marvellous fabric have been 

 nugatory, without that inimitable, conservative adjunct of the whole, — the 

 spark of life. 



