NATURAL THEOLOGY. 75 



these purposes, though no such purposes were con- 

 templated in their formation? 



All that there is of the appearance of reason in 

 this way of considering the subject is, that, in some 

 cases, the organization seems to determine the 

 habits of the animal, and its choice to a particular 

 mode of hfe ; which, in a certain sense, may be 

 called " the use arising out of the part."^^ Now, to 

 all the instances in which there is any place for 

 this suggestion, it may be replied, that the organi- 

 zation determines the animal to habits beneficial 

 and salutary to itself; and that this effect would 

 not be seen so regularly to follow, if the several 

 organizations did not bear a concerted and con- 

 trived relation to the substance by which the ani- 

 mal was surrounded. They would, otherwise, be 



^^ We deceive ourselves in this matter : the dexterity which use 

 gives, makes us apt to beUeve that the faculty is gained through 

 the accidental possession of the instrument. But the difficulty is 

 removed, if we make due comparison between man and other ani- 

 mals. In the former, it is intended that the faculty should be 

 gradually developed ; and the slowness with which perfection is 

 attained leaves us in some doubt of the relation between the effort 

 and the instrument used. But in the latter, all obscurity is removed : 

 their propensities and instincts, and the use of their instruments 

 are so perfect from the beginning, as to admit of no improvement. 

 The fly-catcher requires no experience to adjust his eye, no second 

 effort of his bill to correct the first. Whether it be the horn, or the 

 tooth, or the sting, the disposition is given with it, and the mode 

 of its action is prescribed. The spider weaves his web without 

 improvement, or room for improvement. This subject is treated 

 at some length in the " Bridgewater Treatise on the Hand," where 

 the question is discussed, whether or not the possession of the hand 

 is the source of man's superiority. 



