NATURAL THEOLOGY. 



opinion of the unseen and unknown artist's skill, 

 if he be unseen and unknown, but raises no doubt 

 in our minds of the existence and agency of such 

 an artist, at some former time, and in some place 

 or other. Nor can I perceive that it varies at all 

 the inference, whether the question arise concern- 

 ing a human agent, or concerning an agent of a 

 different species, or an agent possessing, in some 

 respect, a different nature. 



II. Neither, secondly, would it invalidate our 

 conclusion, that the watch sometimes went wrong, 

 or that it seldom went exactly right. The pur- 

 pose of the machinery, the design, and the de- 

 signer, might be evident, and, in the case sup- 

 posed, would be evident, in whatever way we ac- 

 counted for the irregularity of the movement, or 

 whether we could account for it or not. It is^not 

 necessary that a machine be perfect, in order to 

 show with what design it was made : still less ne- 

 cessary, where the only question is, whether it 

 were made with any design at all. 



III. Nor, thirdly, would it bring any uncertainty 

 into the argument, if there were a few parts of the 

 watch, concerning which we could not discover, or 

 had not yet discovered, in what manner they con- 

 duced to the general effect ; or even some parts, 



any two lines whatever, drawn from the two foci to any point in 

 the curve, is always the same. These points are called /od,^re5, 

 because lio;ht reflected from the surface of an oval mirror is con- 

 cfentrated there and produces heat. 



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