i26 APPLICATION OF THE ARGUMENT. 



been pleased to prescribe limits to his own power, and to 

 work his ends within those limits. The •:i;eneral laws of 

 matter have perhaps the nature of these limits , its inertia, 

 its re-action ; the laws which govern the communication of 

 motion, the retraction and reflection of liglit, the constitu- 

 tion of fluids non-elastic and elastic, the transmission of 

 sound through the latter ; the laws of magnetism, of elec- 

 tricity ; and probably others yet undiscovered. These are 

 general laws ; and when a particular purpose is to be ef- 

 fected, it is not by making a new law, nor by tiie suspen- 

 sion of the old ones, nor by making them wind and bend 

 and yield to the occasion (for nature with great steadiness 

 adheres to, and sup)x>rts them,) but it is, as we have seen 

 in the eye, by the interposition of an apparatus, correspond- 

 ing with these laws, and suited to the exigency which re- 

 sults from them, that the purpose is at length attained. As 

 we have said, therefore, God prescribes limits to his power, 

 that he may let in the exercise, and thereby exhibit demon- 

 strations of his wisdom. For then, i. e. such laws and lim- 

 itations being laid down, it is as though one Being should 

 have fixed certain rules ; and, if we may so speak, provid- 

 ed certain materials ; and afterwards, have cojnmitted to 

 another bemg out of these materials, and in subordination 

 to these rules, the task of drawing forth a creation : a sup- 

 position which evidently leaves room, and induces indeed a 

 necessity for contrivance. Nay, there may be many such 

 agents, and many ranks of these. We do not advance this as 

 a doctrine either of philosophy or of religion ; but we say 

 that the suoject may safely be represented under this 

 view, because the Deity, acting himself by general laws, 

 will have the same consequences upon our reasoning, 

 as if he had prescribed thesv^ laws to another. It has been 

 said, that the problem of creation, was ** attraction and 

 matter being given, to make a world out of them :" and, 

 as above explained, this statement perhaps does not convey 

 a false idea. 



We have made choice of the eye as an instance upon 

 which to rest the argument of this chapter. Some single 

 example was to be proposed : and the eye offered itself un- 

 der the advantage of admitting of a strict comparison with 

 optical instruments. The ear, it is probable, is no less 

 artificially and mechanically adapted to its office than the 

 eye; but we know less about it: we do not so well un- 



