NATURAL THEOLOGY. 65 



what degree of vigour and perfection, be perform- 

 ed, or how long preserved without the extirpated 

 organ, does not seem to be ascertained by experi- 

 ment. But to this case, even were it fully made 

 out, may be applied the consideration which we 

 suggested concerning the watch, viz., that these 

 superfluous parts do not negative the reasoning 

 which we instituted concerning those parts which 

 are useful, and of which we know the use; the 

 indication of contrivance, with respect to them, 

 remains as it was before/^ 



III. One atheistic way of replying to our obser- 

 vations upon the works of nature, and to the proofs 

 of a Deity which we think that we perceive in them, 

 is to lell us, that all which we see must necessarily 

 have had some form, and that it might as well be 



'3 In the liigher animals there is a great complication of organs^ 

 Yet, in the lower animals, the functions of digestion, respiration, 

 assimilation, secretion, and growth proceed by means of an ap- 

 paratus comparatively simple. We must not be surprised, then, 

 that certain parts may be removed from the higher animals with- 

 out destroying life. But this does not imply that those parts are 

 useless, since they are structures superadded for the finer adjust- 

 ment of the different functions one to the other, belonging to a 

 higher condition of the economy. 



With regard to parts which are thus called useless, we must 

 remember that the varieties of created animals belong to one 

 type. As we have just said, the essential functions are the same 

 in all ; and there is much of the structure common to all : when 

 an animal of a particular class has its organization adjusted to a 

 certain condition of existence, we may see the rudiments of parts 

 which, not being in action, are imperfect, and we must look to the 

 individuals of another species or variety to discover them in their 

 full developement. 



6* 



