FINAL CAUSES. 29 



intended by the artificer. Thus, if in an unex- 

 plored country, we saw, moving upon the waters 

 of a lake, the trunk of a tree, carved into the 

 shape of a boat, we should immediately conclude 

 that this form had been given to it for the pur- 

 pose of enabling it to float. If we found it also 

 provided with paddles at its sides, we should 

 infer, from our previous knowledge of the effects 

 of such instruments, that they were intended to 

 give motion to this boat, and we should not 

 hesitate to conclude that the whole was the work 

 of human hands, and the product of human 

 intelligence and design. If, in addition, we 

 found this boat furnished with a rudder and with 

 sails, we should at once understand the object of 

 these contrivances, and our ideas of the skill of 

 the artificer would rise in proportion to the ex- 

 cellence of the apparatus, and the ingenuity 

 displayed in its adaptation to circumstances. 



Let us suppose that in another part of this 

 lake we found an insect,* shaped like the boat, 

 and moving through the water by successive 

 impulses given to that medium by the action of 

 levers, extending from its sides, and shaped like 

 paddles, having the same kind of movement, and 

 producing the same effects. Could we resist the 

 persuasion that the Artificer of this insect, when 



* Such as the Notonecta glanca, Lin., or water boatman, and 

 the Dytiscus marginalis, or water beetle. 



