THE ARGUMENT APPLIED. 53 



mthin its reach ; he may select these objects ; but over the 

 impression itself he has no power, or very little ; and thai 

 properly is the sense. — *^ 



Secondly, there are many parts of animal bodies which 

 seem to depend upon the will of the animal in a greater 

 degree than the senses do, and yet with respect to which 

 this solution is equally unsatisfactory. If we apply the so- 

 lution to the human body, for instance, it forms itself into 

 questions upon which no reasonable mind can doubt : such 

 as, whether the teeth were made expressly for the mastica 

 tion of food, the feet for walking, the hands for holding ; oi 

 whether, these things as they are being in fact in the ani- 

 mal's possession, his own ingenuity taught him that they 

 were convertible to these purposes, though no such purposes 

 were contemplated in their formation. 



All that there is of the appearance of reason in this way 

 of considering the subject is, that, in some cases, the organ- 

 ization seems to determine the habits of the animal, and its 

 choice to a particular mode of life ; which, in a certain 

 sense, may be called " the use arising out of the part." Now, 

 to all the instances in which there is any place for this sug- 

 gestion, it may be replied, that the organization determines 

 the animal to habits beneficial and salutary to itself; and 

 that this effect would not be seen so regularly to follow, if 

 the several organizations did not bear a concerted and con- 

 trived relation to the substance by which the animal was 

 surrounded. They would, otherwise, be capacities without 

 objects — powers without employment. The web-foot deter- 

 mines, you say, the duck to swim ; but what would that 

 avail if there were no water to swim in ? The strong hook- 

 ed bill and sharp talons of one species of bird determine it 

 to prs'y upon animals ; the soft straight bill and weak claws 

 of another species determine it to pick up seeds ; but neither 

 determination could take effect in providing for the suste- 

 nance of the birds, if animal bodies and vegetable seeds did 

 not lie Avithin their reach. The peculiar conformation of 



