44 NATURAL THEOLOGY. 



because the Deity, acting himself by general laws, 

 will have the same consequences upon our rea- 

 soning, as if he had presbribed these laws to an- 

 other. It has been said, that the problem of cre- 

 ation was, " attraction and matter being given, to 

 make a world out of them f and, as above ex- 

 plained, this statement perhaps does not convey a 

 false idea. 



We have made choice of the eye as an instance 

 upon which to rest the argument of this chapter. 

 Some single example was to be proposed ; and 

 the eye offered itself under the advantage of ad- 

 mitting of a strict comparison with optical instru- 

 ments. The ear, it is probable, is no less artifi- 

 cially and mechanically adapted to its office than 

 the eye. But we know less about it : we do not 

 so well understand the action, the use, or the mu- 

 tual dependency of its internal parts.'^ Its general 

 form, however, both external and internal, is suf- 

 ficient to show that it is an instrument adapted to 

 the reception oi sound; that is to say, already know- 

 ing that sound consists in pulses of the air, we per- 

 ceive, in the structure of the ear, a suitableness to 

 receive impressions from this species of action, and 

 to propagate these impressions to the brain. For 

 of what does this structure consist? An external 



" The reader will find a dissertation on the ear in the Appen- 

 tlix. Other authors, as well as Dr. Paley, have said that we do 

 not understand the uses or mutual dependency of the internal parts 

 of the ear: an observation either not very intelligible, or which 

 shows them to have studied it superficially. 



