^12 NATURAL THEULOfrY. 



ill all wliich there is no intellect concerned ; still, the choice 

 and collocation of these substances, the fixing upon right 

 substances, and disposing them in right places, must be an 

 act of intelligence. "What mischief would follow were there 

 a single transposition of the secretory organs ; a single mis- 

 take in arranging the glands wliich compose them I 



There may be many second causes, and many courses ol 

 second causes, one behind another, between what we observe 

 of nature and the Deity, but there must be intelligence 

 somewhere — there must be more in nature than what we 

 see ; and, among the things unseen, there must be an intel 

 ligent, designing author. The philosopher beholds with 

 astonishment the production of things around him. Uncon- 

 scious particles of matter take tli^ir stations, and severally 

 range themselves in an order, so as to become collectively 

 plants or animals, that is, organized bodies, with parts bear- . 

 ing strict and evident relation to one another, and to the 

 utility of the whole ; and it should seem that these particles 

 could not move in any other way than as they do, for they 

 testify not the smallest sign of choice, or liberty, or discre- 

 tion. There may be particular intelligent beings guiding 

 these motions in each case ; or they may be the result of 

 trains of mechanical dispositions, fixed beforehand by an 

 intelligent appointment, and kept in action by a power at 

 the centre. But, in either case, there must be intelligence. 



The minds of most men are fond of what they call a 

 frinciple, and of the appearance of simplicity, in accounting 

 for phenomena. Yet this principle, this simplicity, resides 

 merely in the name ; which name, after all, comprises per- 

 haps under it a diversified, multifarious, or progressive oper- 

 ation, distinguishable into parts. The power in organized 

 bodies, of producing bodies like themselves, is one of theso 

 principles. Give a philosopher this, and he can get on. 

 But he does not reflect what this mode of production, this 

 principle — if such he choose to call it — requires ; how much 

 it presupposes ; what an apparatus of instruments, some of 



