OIB ANNUAL REGISTER, 1805. 



ESSAY. II. 



State of the Argument Continued. 



Siij)pose, in the next place, that 

 the person who found the watch 

 should, alter some time, discover 

 that, in addition to all the properties 

 which he had hitherto Observed in 

 it, i*^ possessed tlie unexpected pro. 

 porty of producing, in the course of 

 its movement, another watch like 

 itself; (tlie thing is conceivable;) 

 that it contained within it a me- 

 chanism, a system of parts, a mould 

 for instance, or a complex adjust- 

 ment of laths, fdes, an,d other tools, 

 evidently and separately calculated 

 for this purpose; let us enquire, 

 M'hat effect ought such a discovery 

 to have upon his former conclu- 

 sion ? 



1. The first effect would be to 

 increase hi<; admiration of the con- 

 trivance, and his conviction of the 

 consummate skill of the contriver. 

 Whether he regarded the object of 

 the contrivance, the distinct appa- 

 xatus, the intricate, yet in many 

 parts intelligible, meclianism by 

 which it was carried on, he Avould 

 perceive, in this new observation, 

 nothing but an additional reason for 

 doing what he had already done'; 

 for referring the construction of the 

 watch to design, and to supreme art. 

 If that construction without this 

 property, or,which is the same thing, 

 before this property had been no- 

 ticed, proved intention and art to 

 have been employed about it ; still 

 more strong would the proof ap- 

 pear, when he came to the know- 

 ledge of this further property, the 

 crovs n and perfection of all the rest. 



2. He would reflect, that though 

 the watch before him were (in some 

 sense) the maker of the watch 



which was fabricated in the course 

 of its movement, yet it was in a very 

 different sense from that in which a 

 carpenter, for instance, is the maker 

 of a chair; the author of its con- 

 trivance, the cause of the relation of 

 its parts to tiieir use. With respect 

 to these, the first watch was no 

 cause at all to the second : in no 

 such stuse as this, was it the author 

 of the constitution and order, either 

 of the parts which the new watch 

 contained, or of the parts by the 

 aid and instrumentality, of which it 

 was produced. We might possibly 

 say, but with great latitude of ex- 

 pression, that a stream of water 

 ground corn : but no latitude of 

 expression Mould allow us to say, 

 no stretch of conjecture could lead 

 \is to think, that the stream of water 

 built the miil, though it were too 

 ancient for us to know who the 

 builder was. What the stream of 

 water does in the affair is neither 

 more nor less than this : by theap- 

 plication of an unintelligcntimpulsc, 

 to a mechanism previously arranged, 

 arranged independantly of it, and 

 arranged by intelligence, an effect 

 is produced, viz. the corn is ground. 

 But the effect results from the 

 arrangement. The force of the 

 stream cannot be said to be the 

 cause or author of the effect, still 

 less of the arrangement. Under- 

 standing and plan, in the formation 

 of the mill, were not the less neces- 

 sary for any share which the water 

 has in grinding the corn : yet is this 

 share the same as that which the 

 watch would have contributed to 

 the production of the new watch, 

 upon the supposition assumed in 

 the last section. Therefore, 



.'?. Though it be now no longer 

 probable, that the individual watch 

 wliich our observer had found was; 



made 



