NATURAL THEOLOGY. 



CHAPTER II. 



STATE OF THE ARGUMENT CONTINUED. 



Suppose, in the next place, that the person who 

 found the watch should, after some time, discover 

 that, in addition to all the properties which he had 

 hitherto observed in it, it possessed the unexpected 

 property of producing, in the course of its move- 

 ment, another watch like itself (the thing is con- 

 ceivable) ; that it contained within it a mechanism, 

 a system of parts, a mould, for instance, or a com- 

 plex adjustment of lathes, files, and other tools, 

 evidently and separately calculated for this pur- 

 pose ; let us inquire what effect ought such a dis- 

 covery to have upon his former conclusion. 



I. The first effect would be to increase his ad- 

 miration of the contrivance, and his conviction of 

 the consummate skill of the contriver. Whether he 

 regarded the object of the contrivance, the distinct 

 apparatus, the intricate, yet in many parts intelli- 

 gible mechanism by which it was carried on, he 

 would perceive, in this new observation, nothing 

 but an additional reason for doing what he had al- 

 ready done — for referring the construction of the 

 watch to design, and to supreme art. If that con- 



