COMPARATIVE ANATOMY. 123 



anatomist should say, that this bony protection is not con- 

 fined to the brain, but is extended along the course of the 

 spine, I answer, that he adds strength to the argument. If 

 he remark, that the chest also is fortified by bones, I reply, 

 that I should have alleged this instance myself, if the ribs 

 had not appeared subservient to the purpose of motion, as 

 as well as of defence. What distinguishes the skull from 

 every other cavity is, that the bony covering completely 

 surrounds its contents, and is calculated, not for motion, 

 but solely for defence. Those hollows likewise, and ine- 

 qualities, which we observe in the inside of the skull, and 

 which exactly fit the folds of the brain, answer the impor- 

 tant design of keeping the substance of the brain steady, 

 and of guarding it against concussions. 



CHAP. XII. 



COMPARATIVE ANATOMY. 



Whenever we find a general plan pursued, yet with 

 such variations in it, as are, in each case required by the 

 particular exigency of the subject to which it is applied, we 

 possess, in such plan and such adaptation, the strongest evi- 

 dence, that can be aflforded, of intelligence and design ; an 

 evidence, which most completely excludes every other 

 hypothesis. If the general plan proceeded from any fixed 

 necessity in the nature of things, how could it accommodate 

 itself to the various wants and uses which it had to serve 

 under ditferent circumstances, and on different occasions ? 

 Arkwright's mill was invented for the spinning of cotton. 

 We see it employed for the spinning of wool, flax, and 

 hemp, with such modifications of the original principle, 

 such variety in the same plan, as the texture of those dif- 

 ferent materials rendered necessary. Of the machine's 

 being put together with design, if it were possible to doubt, 

 whilst we saw it only under one mode, and in one form ; 

 when we came to observe it in its different applications, 

 with such changes of structure, such additions, and supple- 

 ments, as the special and particular use in each case de- 

 manded, we could not refuse any longer our assent to the 

 proposition, "that intelligence, properly and strictly so 

 called, (including under that name, foresight, consideration, 

 reference to utility) had been employed, as well in the 



