PROSPECTIVE CONTRIVANCES. 171 



spective contrivance than that which, in all viviparous ani- 

 mals, is found in the ruilk of the female parent. At the 

 moment the young animal enters the world there is its main- 

 tenance ready for it. The particulars to be remarked in this 

 economy are neither few nor slight. We have, first, the 

 nutritious quality of the fluid, unlike, in this respect, every 

 other excretion of the body ; and in which nature hitherto 

 remains unimitated, neither cookery nor chemistry having 

 been able to make milk out of grass : we have, secondly, the 

 organ for its reception and retention : we have, thirdly, the 

 excretory duct annexed to that organ ; and we have, lastly, 

 the determination of the milk to the breast at the particular 

 juncture when it is about to be wanted. We have all these 

 properties in the subject before us ; and they are all indica- 

 tions of design. The last circumstance is the strongest of 

 any. If I had been to guess beforehand, I should have con- 

 jectured, that at the time when there was an extraordinary 

 demand for nourishment in one part of the system, there 

 would be the least likelihood of a redundancy to supply 

 another part. The advanced pregnancy of the female has no 

 inteUigible tendency to fill the breasts with milk. The lac- 

 teal system is a constant wonder ; and it adds to other causes 

 of our admiration, that the number of the teats or paps in 

 each species is found to bear a proportion to the number of 

 the young. In the sow, the bitch, the rabbit, the cat, the 

 rat, which have numerous litters, the paps are numerous, 

 and are disposed along the whole length of the belly ; in the 

 cow and mare, they are few. The most simple account of 

 this is to refer it to a designing Creator. 



But in the argument before uSj we are entitled to con- 

 sider not only animal bodies when framed, but the circum- 

 stance under which they are framed ; and in this view ^f 

 the subject, the constitution of many of their parts is most 

 strictly prospective. 



III. The eye is of no use at the time when it is formed. 

 It is an optical instrument made in a dungeon ; constructed 



