36 NATURAL THEOLOGY. 



to Optical principles which its internal constitution 

 displays, and which alone amounts to a manifesta- 

 tion of intelligence having been exerted in the struc- 

 ture ; besides this, which forms, no doubt, the lead- 

 ing character of the organ, there is to be seen, in 

 everything belonging to it and about it, an extra- 

 ordinary degree of care, an anxiety for its preser- 

 vation, due, if we may so speak, to its value and 

 its tenderness. It is lodged in a strong, deep, bony 

 socket, composed by the junction of seven different 

 bones,* hollowed out at their edges. In some few 

 species, as that of the coatimondi,-|- the orbit is not 

 bony throughout ; but whenever this is the case, the 

 upper, which is the deficient part, is supplied by a 

 cartilaginous ligament ; a substitution which shows 

 the same care. Within this socket it is embedded 

 in fat, of all animal substances the best adapted 

 both to its repose and motion. It is sheltered by 

 the eyebrows — an arch of hair, which, like a thatch- 

 ed penthouse, prevents the sweat and moisture of 

 the forehead from running down into it. 



But it is still better protected by its lid. Of the 

 superficial parts of the animal frame, I know none 

 which, in its office and structure, is more deserving 

 of attention than the eyelid. It defends the eye ; 

 it wipes it ; it closes it in sleep. Are there, in any 

 work of art w^hatever, purposes more evident than 

 those which this organ fulfils ? or an apparatus for 

 executing those purposes more intelligible, more 



* Heister, sect. 89. f Mem. R. Ac. Paris, p. \\1. — Foley. 



