WISDOM AND GOODNESS OF GOD. 



tegument or covering, to defend them from dan 

 ger, and enable them to perform their functions 

 so long as life continues ; and at the same time, 

 to be perforated in such a manner, with a multi 

 tude of pores, in the papillary eminences, as to 

 give a free admission to every variety of taste. 

 It was likewise necessary, that these papillary 

 nerves should be distributed in the greatest 

 number, in those parts of the organ to which 

 the objects of taste are most frequently applied ; 

 and hence we find, that they are more numerous 

 on the upper than on the lower parts of the tongue; 

 and, therefore, when we apply highly-flavoured 

 substances to the under part, we are not so sen 

 sible of the taste, till we remove them to the 

 upper surface. A variety of veins, arteries, 

 glands, tendons, and other parts with which we 

 are unacquainted, are also connected with this 

 useful organ. When we consider how frequently 

 these delicate organs are used, during a length 

 of years, it is matter of admiration how well 

 they wear. While our clothes Wear out in the 

 course of a year or two, while the hairs of our 

 heads turn gray, and are nipped asunder at the 

 roots, and while age shrivels the most beautiful 

 skin, these delicate nervous papillae last longer 

 lhan instruments of iron or steel ; for the sense 

 of taste is generally the last that decays. For 

 the bestowment of this sense, therefore, and the 

 pleasures it conveys, we have abundant reason 

 to admire and adore the wisdom and goodness of 

 our Almighty Creator. 



Finally, that we might be regard with the 

 scent of flowers, and the aromatic perfumes of 

 spring and summer, and that none of the plea 

 sures of nature might be lost, the organ of swell 

 ing was constructed to catch the invisible odo 

 riferous effluvia which are continually wafted 

 through the air. For this purpose it was requi 

 site that bones, nerves, muscles, arteries, veins, 

 cartilages, and membranes, peculiarly adapted 

 to produce this effect, should be arranged, and 

 placed in a certain part of the body. As the 

 bones of the head are too hard for this purpose, 

 the nerves of smelling required to have a bone 

 of a peculiar texture, of a spongy nature, full of 

 little holes, like a sieve, through which they 

 might transmit their slender threads or branches 

 to the papillous membrane which lines the cavi 

 ties of the bone and the top of the nostrils. The 

 noslrils required to be cartilaginous and not 

 fleshy, in order to be kept open, and to be fur 

 nished with appropriate muscles to dilate or con 

 tract them as the occasion might require. It was 

 likewise requisite, that they should be wide at 

 the bottom, to collect a large quantity of effluvia, 

 and narrow at the top, where the olfactory nerves 

 are condensed, that the effluvia might act with 

 the greatest vigour, and convey the sensation to 

 the brain. By means of these and numerous 

 other contrivances, connected with this organ, we 

 are enabled to distinguish the qualities of our 



food, and to regale ourselves on those invisi 

 ble effluvia which are incessantly flying off from 

 the vegetable tribes, and wafted in every direc 

 tion through the atmosphere. 



Of all the senses with which we are furnished, 

 the sense of smelling is that which we are apt to 

 consider as of the least importance ; and some 

 have even been ready to imagine, that our en 

 joyments would scarcely have been diminished, 

 although its organs had never existed. But, ft 

 is presumptuous in man to hazard such an opi 

 nion in reference to any of the beneficent designs 

 of the Creator. We know not what relation the 

 minutest operations, within us or around us, 

 mny bear to the whole economy of nature, or 

 what disastrous effects might be produced, were 

 a single pin of the machinery of our bodies 

 broken or destroyed. The exhalations which 

 are, at this moment, rising from a putrid marsh 

 in the centre of New Holland, and hovering 

 in an invisible form, over that desolate region, 

 may be forming those identical clouds which, 

 the next month, shall water our fields and gar 

 dens, and draw forth from the flowers their aro 

 matic perfumes. The sense of smelling may 

 be essentially requisite to the perfection of 

 several of the other senses ; as we know that 

 the sense of feeling is inseperably connectea 

 with the senses of seeing, hearing, and tasting. 

 Let us consider, for a moment, some of the 

 agencies whieh require to be exerted when this 

 sense is exercised and gratified. Before we 

 could derive pleasure from the fragrance of a 

 flower, it was requisite that a system of the 

 finest tubes, filaments, and membranes should 

 be organized, endowed with powers of absorp 

 tion and perspiration, furnished with hundreds 

 of vessels for conveying the sap through all its 

 parts, and perforated with thousands of pores 

 to give passage to myriads of odoriferous par 

 ticles, secreted from the internal juices. It 

 was also requisite that the atmosphere should 

 be formed, for the purpose of affording nourish 

 ment to the plant, and for conveying its odo 

 riferous effluvia to the olfactory nerves. The 

 rains, the dews, the principle of heat, the re 

 volution of the seasons, the succession of day 

 and night, the principle of evaporation, the 

 agitation of the air by winds, and the solar 

 light, all combine their influence and their 

 agencies in producing the grateful sensation we 

 feel from the smell of a rose. So that the sense 

 of smelling is not only connected with the agen 

 cy of all the terrestrial elements around us, but 

 bears a relation to the vast globe of the sun him 

 self; for an energy exerted at the distance of 

 ninety-five millions of miles, and a motion of 

 200,000 miles every second, in the particles of 

 light, are necessary to its existence ; and conse 

 quently, it forms one of the subordinate ends for 

 which that luminary was created : and, being 

 related to the sun, it may bear a certain re/atio* 



