TELEOLOGY OF PALEY, ETC. 15 



gland, or of the mode of its acting upon the blood ; then 

 our situation is precisely like that of an unrnechanical 

 looker-on who stands by a stocking loom, a corn mill, a 

 carding machine, or a threshing machine, at work, the 

 fabric and mechanism of which, as well as all that passes 

 within, is hidden from his sight by the outside case ; or 

 if seen, would be too complicated for his uninformed, 

 uninstructed understanding to comprehend. And what 

 is that situation? This spectator, ignorant as he is, 

 sees at one end a material enter the machine, as un- 

 ground grain the mill, raw cotton the carding machine, 

 sheaves of unthreshed corn the threshing machine, and 

 when he casts his eye to the other end of the apparatus, 

 he sees the material issuing from it in a new state ; 

 and what is more, a state manifestly adapted for its 

 future uses : the grain in meal fit for the making of 

 bread, the wool in rovings fit for the spinning into 

 threads, the sheaf in corn fit for the mill. Is it neces- 

 sary that this man, in order to be convinced that design, 

 that intention, that contrivance has been employed 

 about the machine, should be allowed to pull it to 

 pieces, should be enabled to examine the parts sepa- 

 rately, explore their action upon one another, or their 

 operation, whether simultaneous or successive, upon the 

 material which is presented to them ? He may long to 

 do this to satisfy his curiosity ; he may desire to do it 

 to improve his theoretic knowledge ; . . . . but for the 

 purpose of ascertaining the existence of counsel and 

 design in the formation of the machine, he wants no 

 such intromission or privity. The effect upon the 

 material, the change produced in it, the utility of the 



