APPLICATION OF THE ARGUMENT, W 



watch in the course of the movements which he had giveis 

 to the old one. It is only working by one set of tools, in- 

 stead of another. 



The conclusion which the Jirst examination of the watch^ 

 of its works, construction, and movement suggested, was, 

 that it must have had, for the cause and author of that con- 

 struction, an artificer, who understood its mechanism, and 

 designed its use. This conclusion is invincible. A second 

 examination presents us with a new discovery. The watch 

 is found, in the course of its movement, to produce anoth- 

 er watch, similar to itself- and not only so, but we perceive 

 in it a system of organization, separately calculated for that 

 purpose. What effect would this discovery have, or ought. 

 it to have, upon our former inference 1 What, as hath al- 

 ready been said, but to increase, beyond measure, our ad- 

 miration of the skill, which had been employed in the for- 

 mation of such a machine ? Or shall it, instead of this, 

 all at once, turn us round to an opposite conclusion, viz. 

 that no art or skill whatever has been concerned in the 

 business, although all other evidences of art and skill re- 

 main as they were, and this last and supreme piece of art 

 be now added to the rest 1 Can this be maintained with- 

 out absurdity 1 Yet this is atheism, 



CHAPTER III. 



APPLICATION OF THE ARGUMENT. 



This is atheism ; for every indication of contrivance, ev- 

 ery manifestation of design, which existed in the watch, ex- 

 ists in the works of nature ; with the difference, on the side 

 of nature, of being greater and more, and that in a degree 

 which exceeds all computation. I mean that the contriv- 

 ances of nature surpass the contrivances of art, in the com- 

 plexity, subtlety, and curiosity of the mechanism ; and still 

 more, if possibly, do they go beyond them in number and 

 variety : yet in a multitude of cases, are not less evidently 

 mechanical, not less evidently contrivances, not less evi- 

 dently accommodated to their end, or suited to their office, 

 than are the most perfect productions of human ingenuity. 



I know no better method of introducing so large a sub- 

 ject, than of comparing a single thing with a single thing; 

 an eye, for example, with a telescope. As far as the ex- 



