22 APPLICATION OF THE ARGUMENT. 



prospect from Hampstead-Hill is compressed into the com- 

 pass of a sixpense, yet circumstaniially represented. A 

 stage coach, tiavelling at its ordinary speed for half an 

 hour, passes, in the eye, only over one-twelfth of an inch, 

 yet is this change of place in the image distinctly per- 

 ceived throughout its whole progress; for it is only by 

 means of that perception that the motion of the coach it- 

 self is made sensible to the eye. If any thing can abate 

 our admiiation of the smallness of the visual tablet compar- 

 ed with the extent of vision, it is a reflection, which the 

 view of nature leads us, every hour, to make, viz. that in 

 the hands of the Creator, great and little are nothing. 



Sturmius held, that the examination of the eye was 

 a cure for atheism. Beside that conformity to optical 

 principles, which its internal constitution displays, and 

 which alone amounts to a manifestation of intelligence hav- 

 ing been exerted in its structure ; besides this, which forms, 

 no doubt, the leading character of the organ, there is to be, 

 seen, in every thing belonging to it and about it, an ex-' 

 traordmary degree of care and anxiety for its preservation, 

 due, if we may so speak, to its value and tenderness. It is 

 lodged in a strong, deep, bony socket, composed by the 

 junction of seven different bones,* hollowed out at their 

 edges. In some few species, as that of the coatimondi,t 

 the orbit is not bone throughout ; but whenever this is the 

 ca^e, the upper, which is the deficient part, is supplied by 

 a cartilaginous licrament . a substitution which shows the 

 same care. Within this socket it is imbedded in fat of 

 all animal substances the best adapted both .to its repose 

 and motion. It is sheltered by the eyebrows, and arch of 

 hair, which, like a thatched pent-house, prevent the sweat 

 and moisture of the forehead from running down into it. 

 But it is >till better protected by its lid Of the super- 

 ficial parts of the animal frame, I know none which, in 

 its ofii -e and structure, is more deserving of attention than 

 the eyelid. It »lefends the eye ; it wipes it; it closes it in 

 sleep. Are there, in any work of art whatever, purposes 

 more evident than those which this organ fulfils : or an 

 apparatus for executinsr those purposes more intelligible, 

 more appropriate, or more mechanical '\ If it oe overlooked 

 by the observer of nature, it can only be because it is ob- 

 vious and familiar. — This is a tendency to be guarded 

 against. We pass by the plainest instances, whilst we are 



* Heister, sect. 89. t Mem. of the R. Ac. Paris, p. 117. 



