306 FACULTIES OF BIRDS. 
cludes from the universe the designing hand of an 
intelligent Creator. There might then be less ab- 
surdity in the monstrous hypothesis which teaches 
that all things have been the result of a mere brute 
mechanism, and that the same active, but blind and 
insensible, powers which produce a crystal have, 
under happier combinations, called into existence 
more perfect organizations, and resulted in the for- 
mation of living beings. Such an argument would 
still, indeed, have been quite untenable, but the dem- 
onstration by which it is disproved would have been 
less perfect and satisfactory, had we been unable to 
show with what extreme and anxious solicitude the 
most minute particulars, in the organic structure of 
each species of animal, are made to harmonize 
with each other, and with what surpassing skill 
they are suited to their individual nature and of- 
fices. 
Such a mode of reasoning presents itself to the 
mind with peculiar force when any one organ is se- 
lected, and its peculiarities are distinctly traced 
in different races of living creatures. A recent au- 
thor has employed an argument of this kind with 
much facility in reference to the human hand.* He 
has traced the rudiments and framework of this 
most perfect mechanical contrivance through all the 
various species of mammalia, beginning at the mon- 
key and ending with the whale, and his demonstra- 
tions show that the very same instrument is em- 
ployed in them all, but that it is, with the most 
astonishing wisdom, adapted to the peculiar facul- 
ties and functions of each distinct tribe, being 
moulded in one class into a paw, in another into a 
solid hvof, in a third into a tool for digging, in a 
fourth into a fin for dividing the water. The ex- 
amination of this one contrivance in such various 
forms—not to mention the innumerable others 
* Sir Charles Bell’s Bridgewater Treatise. 
