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MISCELLANEOUS ESSAYS. 



Tico Enssi/s on the State of the 

 Argument^ for the Existence of a 

 DeitYj by the late Dr. Palet/. 



ESSAY. I. 



IN crossing a heath^suppose I 

 pitched iny foot against a stone, 

 and were asked how the stone came 

 to be there, 1 might possibly an- 

 swer, that, for any thing I knew to 

 the contrary, it had lain there for 

 ever ; nor wosld it perhaps be very 

 easy to shew the absurdity of this 

 answer. But suppose I had found 

 a watch upon the ground, and it 

 should be enquired how the watch 

 happened to be in that place, I 

 should hardly think of the answer 

 which I had before given, that, for 

 any thing 1 knew, the watch might 

 have always been there; Yet why 

 should not this answer serve for 

 the watch, as well as for the stoue ? 

 Why is it not as admissible in the 

 second case, as in the first ? For 

 this reason, and for no other, viz. 

 that when wc come to inspect the 

 watch, wc perceive (what wc could 

 not discover in the stone) that i(s 

 several parts arc framed and put 

 together for a purjjosc, e. g. diat 

 they arc so formed and adjusted as 

 to produce motion, and that motion 

 so rcgulatttd as to pouit out the 



hour of the day ; that, if the several 

 parts had been differently shaped 

 from what they are, of a diHcrent 

 size from what they are, or pla'ced 

 after any other manner, or in any 

 other order, than that in which they 

 are placed, either no motion at all 

 would have been carried on in the 

 machine, or none which w ould have 

 answered the use that is now served 

 by it. To reckon up a few of the 

 plainest of these parts, and of thcfr 

 offices, al^ tending to one result. 

 Wft see a cylindrical box, containing 

 a ooiled elastic spring, which, by its 

 endeavour to relax itself, turns 

 round the box. We next observe a 

 flexible chain, (artificially wrought 

 for the sake of flexure,) communi- 

 cating the action of the spring frofa 

 the box to the fusee. We then find 

 a series of wheels, the teeth of which, 

 catch in, and apply to each other, 

 conducting the motion from the 

 fusee to the balance, and from the 

 balance to the pointer; and at (he 

 same time, by the size and shape of 

 those wheels, so regulating (hat mo- 

 tion, as to terminate in causing au 

 index, by an ccjuabic and measured 

 jjrogression, to pass over a givca 

 space in a given time. Wc take 

 notice that the wheels arc made "(if 

 hrms, in order to keep them from 

 rust ; the springs of steel, no other 

 3 N 2 metfti 



