THE PHILOSOPHY OF RELIGION. 



to similar agencies which that central globe is 

 producing among the inhabitants of surrounding 

 worlds. 



Thus it appears, that the various senses of 

 man, as well as -the external objects which con 

 tribute to their gratification, are the results of 

 infinite wisdom and goodness, and calculated 

 to promote the happiness of sensitive and intel 

 ligent beings. 



But, before any one of these senses could per 

 form its functions, it required to be united with 

 a most wonderful system of organization. The 

 heart required to be endowed with an immense 

 degree of muscular power, and to be set in ac 

 tion in the centre of this complicated system 

 hundreds of arteries required to be bored, and 

 ramified, and arranged, to convey the blood to its 

 remotest extremities, and hundreds of veins to 

 bring it back again to its reservoir thousands 

 of lacteal and lymphatic tubes to absorb nutri 

 ment from the food, and convey it to the circu 

 lating fluid thousands of glands to secrete hu 

 mours that are noxious or redundant from the 

 mass of blood, and emunctories to throw them 

 oft from the system hundreds of muscles fot 

 moving the different members of the body, and 

 for conveying the whole corporeal frame from 

 place to place hundreds of fine cords infinitely 

 ramified over the whole body, to convey sensa 

 tion to all its parts ; and thousands of millions of 

 perforations to be made in the skin, through 

 which the insensible perspiration might conti 

 nually flow. To support this fine and delicate 

 system of vessels, hundreds of bones of diver 

 sified forms, and different sizes, and connected 

 together by various modes of articulation, re 

 quired to be constructed and arranged, and nice 

 ly adapted to their peculiar functions ; and hun 

 dreds of tendons and ligaments, to connect these 

 bones with the muscles, and with every other 

 part of the animal frame. This machine re 

 quired to be preserved in constant action, whether 

 we be sleeping or waking, sitting or standing, in 

 motion or at rest. The heart required to give 

 ninety-six thousand strokes every twenty-four 

 hours, to send ofTstreams of the vital fluid through 

 hundreds of tubes, and to impel the whole mass 

 of blood through every part of the body every 

 four minutes. The lungs required to be in con 

 stant play, expanding and contracting their thou 

 sand vesicles, at least twenty times every mi 

 nute, to imbibe the oxygen of the atmosphere, 

 and to transmit its enlivening influence to the 

 circulating fluids the stomach to be dissolving 

 the food, and preparing it for the nourishment of 

 the body the liver and kidneys to be drawing 

 off their secretions the lacteals to be extracting 

 nutritious particles, to be conveyed, by the ab 

 sorbent vessels, into the mass of blood -and the 

 perspiration, which might otherwise c,og the 

 wheels of the whole machine, to be thrown off 

 incessantly through millions of pores. All this 



curious and delicate machinery, constructed of 

 the most flabby substances, required to be put ID 

 motion, and to be preserved in action every mo 

 ment, before we could contemplate the beauties 

 of a landscape, be delighted with the sounds of 

 music, or inhale the fragrance of a rose. 



It is worthy of notice, that, in the construc 

 tion and arrangement of these numerous and 

 complicated parts and functions, there is not a 

 single instance, that any physiologist can pro 

 duce, in which pain is the object of the contri 

 vance. Of all the thousands of adaptations 

 which infinite Wisdom has contrived, there is not 

 one but what has for its object the communication 

 of pleasure to the sentient being in which it is 

 found. If a number of small muscles are con 

 nected with the eye, it is for the purpose of 

 rendering that organ susceptible of a quick and 

 easy motion in every direction, to meet every 

 exigence. If the arteries are furnished with nu 

 merous valves, opening only in one direction, it 

 is intended to prevent the blood from returning 

 by a wrong course, and endangering the whole 

 structure of the animal machine. If a joint is 

 formed to move only in one direction, as the 

 joints of the fingers, it is intended to prevent 

 those inconveniences which would inevitably 

 have been felt, had it been capable of moving in 

 every direction. If another kind of joint is con 

 structed so as to move in every direction, it is 

 intended to enable us to perform, with facility, 

 those movements and operations which would 

 otherwise have been either impossible, or have 

 been attended with the greatest inconvenience 

 and pain. There are certain parts connected 

 with the human frame, whose precise use can 

 not be accurately determined, but this is owing 

 to our limited knowledge of the various functions 

 which are requisite to be performed in this com 

 plicated machine. In no instance whatever can 

 it be shown, that the infliction of pain is the ob 

 ject of any one part or function of whose use we 

 are uncertain ; and it is conformable to the dic 

 tates of the soundest reason to conclude, that, 

 since every part, whose use we can ascertain, is 

 adapted to communicate pleasure, every other 

 part, throughout every branch of the animal sys 

 tem, is calculated to produce a similar effect. 



It is true, indeed, that pain is frequently felt 

 in the different members which compose our 

 corporeal system ; but this is not owing to its 

 original construction, but to the derangement 

 which its parts receive, either from internal dis 

 ease or from external violence : and such conse 

 quences are the effects either of the folly of man, 

 in exposing his body to danger, or in using its 

 members for improper purposes, or of the 

 physical changes which have happened in the 

 system of nature since man was created. 01 

 of those depraved and immoral passions which 

 so frequently agitate and convulse his corporea* 

 frame. 



