47 . 



with the arrangement of its parts, and depends upon them for it* 

 identity. After all, what shall we say of its properties'? It is a 

 peculiar sort of stone: it may contain iron, sulphur, &c. in addi- 

 tion to the common properties of matter. Then it is made this 

 peculiar kind of stone by these peculiar constituents. And these, 

 how are they made? Certainly not from nothing: they are not 

 elementary, as already shewn. Or, take a part of an animal, as 

 an arm what makes its identity? Plainly that without which it 

 would not be identified, viz. bones, muscles, blood-vessels, nerves, 

 &c. What constitutes their identity? The chymical analyses 

 have severally gone some way towards answering this question. 

 But then what brings these together, and arranges these elements, 

 as they are called, in such a way as to make a muscle? The 

 causes which have a relation with these elements capable of pro- 

 ducing such an effect and what are these causes? They are not 

 known ; they are not cognizable to the senses. Here, then, the 

 intervention of design is supposed, while our experience furnishes 

 us with no example of a relation which subsists between the de- 

 signing principle and inanimate particles; for such they are until 

 they are joined together, and obtain a reciprocation of function, 

 as in the form of an animal body. But then, further, this design, 

 how came it (allowing it for the present) to project a muscle? By 

 itself, it must be said. And where did it gain its instruction 1 

 The intelligence was produced by what? By that without which 

 its identity could not exist, by its causes and what are these? 

 Properties which we infer to be different from itself individually, 

 but in the aggregate forming it; properties which, in our expe- 

 rience of the history of design, are external or distinct from the 

 intellectual pre-disposition, but which unite with it, and form with 

 it, ideas; and furnish it with the models of design. That, then, 

 which we attribute to design, results from causes: of the design 

 we have no evidence ; and if it is supposed, this also is governed 

 by causes, an endless chain. It is the business of analytical science 

 to discover these. 



32. Such a state of things as that which has been hinted at 

 would be called a mere jumble and contention of the elements of 

 nature; it would be asked, what order, what regularity, what per- 

 fection, &c. can ensue from such a tumult? such heterogeneous 

 materials without any directing sense? First, let us examine what 

 that is to which we give names of regularity, order, adaptation, 

 contrivance, perfection, &c. 



33. Why is a good watch a regular piece of mechanism? 

 Because its parts all concur to indicate time, in correspondence 

 with the motion of the earth; in other words, because they have 

 a relation with an end, or are capable of producing a certain effect, 

 which is to indicate time. Now supposing that the parts of the 

 watch were different, or differently arranged, so as to make the 

 hands move round the dial-plate sometimes three times in an hour, 

 and sometimes only halfway round it in three hours; what should 



