'iHE AHaUMENT APPLIED. 55 



is wanted, there we find it ; where order is not wanted, that 

 is, where, if it prevailed, it would be useless, there we do 

 not find it. In the structure of the eye — for we adhere to 

 our example — in the figure and position of its several parts, 

 the most exact order is maintained. In the forms of rocks 

 and mountains, in the lines which bound the coasts of con 

 tinents and islands, hi the shape of bays and promontories, 

 n^ order whatever is perceived, because it would have been 

 superfluous. No useful purpose would have arisen from 

 moulding rocks and mountains into regular solids, bounding 

 the channel of the ocean by geometrical curves ; or from the 

 map of the world resembling a table of diagrams in Euclid's 

 Elements or Simpson's Conic Sections. 



VIL Lastly, the confidence which we place in our ob- 

 servations upon the works of nature, in the marks which we 

 discover of contrivance, choice, and design, and in our rea- 

 soning upon the proofs afforded us, ought not to be shaken, 

 as it is sometimes attempted to be done, by bringing forward 

 to our view our own ignorance, or rather the general imper- 

 fection of our knowledge of nature. Nor, in many cases, 

 ought this consideration to affect us, even when it respects 

 some parts of the subject immediately under our notice. 

 True fortitude of understanding consists in not suHering 

 what we know to be disturbed by what we do not know. 

 If we perceive a useful end, and means adapted to that end, 

 we perceive enough for our conclusion. If these things be 

 clear, no matter what is obscure. The argument is finished. 

 For instance, if the utility of vision to the animal which 

 enjoys it, and the adaptation of the eye to this office, be evi- 

 dent and certain — and I can mention nothing which is more 

 so — ought it to prejudice the inference which we draAv from 

 these premises, that we cannot explain the use of the spleen. ? 

 Nay, more, if there be parts of the eye, namely, the cornea, 

 the crystalline, tiie retina, in tneir substance, figure and po- 

 sition, manifestly suited to the formation of an image by 

 tlie refraction of rays of light, at least as manifestly as the 



