180 NATURAL THEOLOGY. 



Nor do the works of the Deity want this clearest species 

 of relation. The sexes are manifestly made for each other 

 They form the grand relation of animated nature : univer 

 Bal, organic, mechanical ; subsisting, like the clearest rela- 

 tions of art, in different individuals, unequivocal, inexplica- 

 ble without design. 



So much so, that were every other proof of contrivance 

 in nature duhious or obscure, this alone would be sufficient. 

 The example is complete. Nothing is wanting to the argu- 

 ment. I see no way whatever of getting over it. 



V. The teats of animals which give suck bear a relation 

 to the mouth of the suckling progeny, particularly to the lips 

 and tongue. Here also, as before, is a correspondency of 

 parts ; which parts subsist in different individuals. 



These are general relations, or the relations of parts 

 which are found either in all animals or in large classes and 

 descriptions of animals. Partic^dar relations, or the rela- 

 tions which subsist between the particular configuration of 

 one or more parts of certain species of animals, and the par- 

 ticular configuration of one or more other parts of the same 

 animal — which is the sort of relation that is, perhaps, most 

 striking — are such as the following : 



I. In the swan, the web-foot, the spoon-bill, the long 

 neck, the thick down, the graminivorous stomach, bear all 

 a relation to one another, inasmuch as they all concur in 

 one design, that of supplying the occasions of an aquatic 

 fowl floating upon the surface of shallow pools of water, and 

 seeking its food at the bottom. Begin with any one of these 

 particularities of structure, and observe how the rest follow 

 it. The web-foot qualifies the bird for swimming ; the 

 spoon-bill enables it to graze. But how is an animal float- 

 ing upon the surface of pools of water to graze at the bot- 

 tom, except by the mediation of a long neck ? A long neck 

 accordingly is given to it. Again, a warm-blooded animal 

 which was to pass its life upon water, required a defence 



