10 NATURAL THEOLOGY. 



which, by its endeavor to relax itself, turns round the box. 

 "We next observe a flexible chain — artificially wrought for the 

 sake of flexure — communicating the action of the spring from 

 the box to the fusee. We then find a series of wheels, the 

 teeth of which catch in and apply to each other, conducting 

 the motion from the fusee to the balance and from the bal- 

 ance to the pointer, and at the same time, by the size and 

 shape of those wheels, so regulating that motion as to ter- 

 minate in causing an index, by an equable and measured 

 progression, to pass over a given space in a given time. We 

 take notice that the wheels are made of brass, in order to 

 keep them from rust ; the springs of steel, no other metal 

 being so elastic ; that over the face of the watch there is 

 placed a glass, a material employed in no other part of the 

 work, but in the room of which, if there had been any other 

 than a transparent substance, the hour could not be seen 

 without opening the case. Tliis mechanism bemg observed — 

 it requires indeed an examination of the - instrument, and 

 perhaps some previous knowledge of the subject, to perceive 

 and understand it ; but being once, as we have said, observed 

 and understood, the inference we think is inevitable, that 

 the watch must have had a maker — that there must have 

 existed, at some time and at some place or other, an artificer 

 or artificers who formed it for the purpose wliich we find it 

 actually to answer, who comprehended its -construction and 

 designed its use. 



I. Nor would it, I apprehend, weaken the conclusion, 

 that we had never seen a watch made — that we had never 

 .niown an artist capable of making one — that we were alto- 

 gether incapable of executing such a piece of workmanship 

 ourselves, or of understanding in what manner it was per- 

 formed ; all this being no more than what is true of soma 

 exquisite remains of ancient art, of some lost arts, and, to 

 the generality of mankind, of the more curious productions 

 of modern manufacture. Does one man in a million know 

 how oval frames are turned ? Ignorance of this kind exalte 



