184 NATURAL THEOLOGV. 



CHAPTER XYl. 



COMPENSATION. 



Compensation is a species of relation. It is relation 

 when the defects of one part, or of one organ, are sup- 

 plied by the structure of another part, or of another organ. 

 Thus, 



I. The short unbending neck of the elephant^ is com- 

 pensated by the length and flexibiHty of his proboscis. He 

 could not have reached the ground without it ; or, if it be 

 supposed that he might have fed upon the fruit, leaves, or 

 branches of trees, how was he to drink ? Should it be asked, 

 Why is the elephant's neck so short ? it may be ansv*^ered, 

 that the weight of a head so heavy could not have been 

 supported at the end of a longer lever. To a form, there- 

 fore, in some respects necessary, but in some respects also 

 madequate to the occasion of the animal, a supplement is 

 added which exactly makes up the deficiency under which 

 he labored. 



If it be suggested that this proboscis may have been 

 produced, in a long course of generations, by the constant 

 endeavor of the elephant to thrust out its nose — which is 

 the general hypothesis by which it has lately been attempt- 

 ed to account for the forms of animated nature — I would 

 ask. How was the animal to subsist in the mean time, dur- 

 ing the process, until this prolongation of snout were com- 

 pleted ? What was to become of the individual while the 

 species was perfecting ? 



Our business at present is, simply to point out the rela- 

 tion which this organ bears to the pecuhar figure of the ani- 

 mal to which it belongs. And herein all things correspond 

 The necessity of the elephant's proboscis arises from the 

 shortness of his neck ; the shortness of the neck is rendered 

 necessary by the weight of the head. Were we to enter 

 * Plate v., Fig. 4. 



