THE ARGUMENT STATED. 19 



ili&posing, fixing, and inserting of these instruments, or oi 

 others equivalent to them, in the body of the watch already 

 made, in such a manner as to form a new watch in the 

 course of the movements which he had given to the old one. 

 It IS only working by one set of tools instead of another. 



The conclusion which i\iQ first examination of the watch, 

 of its works, construction, and movement, suggested, was, 

 that it must have had, for cause and author of that construc- 

 tion, an artificer who understood its mechanism and designed 

 its use. This conclusion is invincible. A second examina* 

 tiou presents us with a new discovery. The watch is found, 

 in the course of its movement, to produce another watch 

 similar to itself; and not only so, but we perceive in it a 

 system or organization separately calculated for that pur- 

 pose. What effect would this discovery have, or ought it to 

 have, upon our former inference? What, as hath already 

 been said, but to increase beyond measure our admiration 

 of the skill which had been employed in the formation of 

 such a machine ? Or shall it, instead of this, all at once 

 turn us round to an opposite conclusion, namely, that no art 

 or skill whatever has been concerned in the business, al- 

 though all other evidences of art and skill remain as they 

 were, and this last and supreme piece of art be now added 

 to the rest ? Can this be maintained without absurdity 1 

 Yet this is atheism. 



