AND FUNCTIONS OP ANIMALS, &C. 51 



for the purpose of ascertaining the existence of counsel 

 und design in the formation of the machine, he wants no 

 such intromission or privity. What he sees is sufficient. 

 The effect upon the material, the change produced in it, 

 the utility of that change for future applications, abundant- 

 ly testify, be the concealed part of the machine or of its 

 construction what it may, the hand and agency of a con- 

 triver. If any confirmation were wanting to the evidence 

 which the animal secretions afford of design, it may be de- 

 rived, as hath been already hinted, from their variety, and 

 from their appropriation to their place and use. They all 

 come from the same blood ; they are all drawn off by 

 glands ; yet th?; produce is very different, and the differ- 

 ence exactly adapted to the work which is to be done, or 

 the end to be answered. No account can be given of this 

 without resorting to appointment. Why, for instance, is 

 the saliva, which is diffused over the seat of taste insipid, 

 whilst so many others of the secretions, the urine, the tears, 

 and the sweat, are salt ? Why does the gland within the 

 ear separate a viscid substance, which defends that passage: 

 the gland in the upper angle of the eye, a thin brine, which 

 washes the ball? Why is the synovia of the joints muci- 

 laginous ; the bile bitter, stimulating, and soapy ? Why 

 does the juice, which flows into the stomach, contain pow- 

 ers which make that bowel the great laboratory, as it is by 

 its situation the recipient, of the materials of future nu- 

 trition 1 These are all fair questions ; and no answer can 

 be given to them, but what calls in intelligence and inten- 

 tion. 



My object in the present chapter has been to teach three 

 things : first, that it is a mistake to suppose, that, in rea- 

 soning from the appearances of nature, the imperfection of 

 our knowledge proportionably affects the certainty of our 

 conclusion . for in many cases it does not affect it at all : 

 secondly, that the different parts of the animal frame may 

 be classed and distributed, according to the degree of ex- 

 actness with which we can compare them with works of 

 art : thirdly, that the mechanical parts of our frame, or, 

 those in which this comparison is most complete, although 

 constituting, probably the coarsest portions of nature's 

 workmanship, are the properest to be alleged as proofs 

 and specimens of design. 



