204 NATURAL THEOLOGY. 



its proof of design to form and power to execute , that 

 to dispute the conclusion is to give up the office of 

 reason. Or, limit the case to the passage of light 

 through the crystalline lens only, and to the effect of 

 its singular structure in rectifying vision, and the argu- 

 ment even gains in force by its simplicity. Some have 

 sought to impugn the perfectness of the organ ; but even 

 had they not been answered by Brewster and Helm- 

 holtz, the conclusion would not have lost its validity. 



Were we able to interpret equally the delicate and 

 complex parts of the internal ear, the evidence of de- 

 sign here would doubtless be no less cogent. In truth, 

 the four little bones of the tympanum, ignorant though 

 we are of the specialties of their use, do yet in their 

 peculiarities of position and connexion as clearly denote 

 design, and design fulfilled, as if the purpose of each 

 was written out distinctly before us. Chance could 

 not have placed them there. In these instances, in- 

 deed, as more distinctly in many others, we may notice 

 certain approximations in series from lower grades of 

 life, and in the case of the eye certain incidental varia- 

 tions which seem to be transmissible by inheritance. 

 But still these things, carefully attested, cannot annul 

 the conclusion, founded explicitly upon adaptation of 

 structure to the complex laws of light and sound, that 

 these organs are fashioned by design, and are not the 

 result of casual conformation or of any selective power 

 inherent in the creatures thus endowed. Whether the 

 expression be illogical or not, I would cite the eye as 

 an instance where all reason merges at once in a cer- 

 tain and inevitable conclusion. 



