12 LETTERS TO BROTHER JOHN. 



appendages, to resist decay: and so of all the 

 other systems. But if it be asked, Why was the 

 osseous structure created ? who shall answer the 

 question ? Its purpose cannot be simply to support 

 the soft parts this is only its secondary and adven- 

 titious use : for I have just shewn that the soft parts 

 are subservient to it, and not it to the soft parts. 



To the Divine Artificer, however, the source of 

 all wisdom, and fountain of all that is good and all 

 that is beautiful, and to whom nothing is impossi- 

 ble, nothing difficult to Him the whole complex 

 idea was present at the same instant of time : and 

 therefore, foreseeing, in His omniscience, all that 

 which could only occur to a finite mind step by 

 step, and little by little, He, from the first, provided 

 against all exigencies, and fashioned man at once 

 at he is. 



Thus, then, we see that the body may be conve- 

 niently (at least for our present purpose) divided 

 into five principal systems. First come the bones : 

 secondly, the muscles moving these: thirdly, the 

 brain and nerves, from which the motive power of 

 the muscles whether those moving the bones, or 

 those other hollow muscles which move the fluids, 

 such as, the heart, the arteries, &c. is derived : 

 fourthly, the organs of the senses, by which the 



