306 FACULTIES OF BIRDS. 



eludes 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 hoof, 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. 



