274 PERFECTION OF 



resorted to, in order to enable the animal to keep its 

 hold, a very few simple claws, or elastic pads, applied 

 with nature's mechanical skill, are not only all that 

 exist, but all that {is necessary, and that more would 

 be an absolute incumbrance. 



Those attempts at explanation by such supple- 

 mental aids as have been alluded to, are found in 

 numbers in very many of the books (even those of no 

 measured pretence) which profess to treat of the 

 mechanics of the living world. But the accounts of 

 such structures always point out the origin of the 

 structure : it is a bungle ; therefore it is the work of 

 man : were it the work of God, it would be jM?rfect 

 in its single and simple organisation, and more, even 

 could it be added, would overload and weaken it, just 

 as a machine of human invention is overloaded and 

 weakened when it consists of too many parts. That 

 joiner is a bungler in his art who must upon all occa- 

 sions use the glue-pot ; and that is the most perfect 

 piece of carpentry which stands firm without glue or 

 nail, or "any other supplemental fastening ; and when 

 we come to nature we find no such fastenings ; tlic 

 parts themselves have the requisite form, the requisite 

 adherence to each other, and the whole, by means of 

 ita own organisation, has the necessary adhesion to 

 whatever kind of surface is to support the animal in 

 its ordinary motions. 



And here, as the subject presents itself naturally in 

 consequence of the explanations which have been 

 given of these feet, we cannot resist calling the atten- 

 tion of such readers as may not generally be in the 

 habit of attending to such subjects, to the very wide 

 and wonderful field for mechanical study which the 

 animal creation presents. Yet ample and apparently 

 exhaustless as it is, it is all acquirable knowledge, as 



