172 NATUEAL THEOLOGY. 



for the refraction of light to a focus, and perfect for its pur* 

 pose before a ray of light has had access to it ; geometrically 

 adapted .to the properties and action of an element with 

 which it has no communication. It is about indeed to enter 

 into that communication; and this is precisely the thing 

 which evidences intention. It is 2^ovicling for the future 

 ill the closest sense which can be given to these terms ; for 

 it is providing for a future change, not for the then sub- 

 sisting condition of the animal, not for any gradual progress 

 or advance in that same condition, but for a new state, 

 the consequence of a great and sudden alteration which the 

 animal is to undergo at its birth. Is it to be believed 

 that the eye was formed, or which is the same thing, that 

 the series of causes was fixed by which the eye is form- 

 ed, without a view to this change ; without a prospect of 

 that condition, in which its fabric, of no use at present, is 

 about to be of the greatest ; without a consideration of 

 the qualities of that element, hitherto entirely excluded, but 

 with which it was hereafter to hold so intimate a rela- 

 tion ? A young man makes a pair of spectacles for him- 

 self against he grows old ; for which spectacles he has no 

 want or use whatever at the time he makes them. Could 

 this be done without knowing and considering the defect of 

 vision to which advanced age is subject ? Would not the 

 precise suitableness of the instrument to its purpose, of the 

 remedy to the defect, of the convex lens to the flattened eye, 

 establish the certainty of the conclusion, that the case after- 

 wards to arise had been considered beforehand, speculated 

 upon provided for ? all which are exclusively the acts of a 

 reasoning mind. The eye formed in one state, for use only 

 in another state, and in a difierent state, aflbrds a proof no 

 less clear of destination to a future purpose ; and a proof pro- 

 porlionably stronger, as the machinery is more complicated 

 and the adaptation more exact. 



lY. What has been said of the eye, holds equally true ol 

 the lungs. Composed of air-vessels, where there is no air ; 



