NATURAL THEOLOGY. 87 



animal, which is astonishingly great ; 3dly, to the 

 judicious (if we may be permitted to use that 

 term in speaking of the Author, or of the works, of 

 Nature,) to the wise and well-contrived disposi- 

 tion of each muscle for its specific purpose ; for 

 moving the joint this way, and that way, and the 

 other way ; for puUing and drawing the part to 

 which it is attached in a determinate and particu- 

 lar direction : which is a mechanical operation 

 exemplified in a multitude of instances. To men- 

 tion only one : The tendon of the trochlear muscle 

 of the eye, to the end that it may draw in the line 

 required, is passed through a cartilaginous ring, at 

 w^hich it is reverted, exactly in the same manner 

 as a rope in a ship is carried over a block, or 

 round a stay, in order to make it pull in the direc- 

 tion which is wanted. All this, as we have said, 

 is mechanical, and is as accessible to inspection, 

 as capable of being ascertained, as the mechanism 

 of the automaton in the Strand. Supposing the 

 automaton to be put in motion by a magnet 

 (w^hich is probable,) it will supply us with a com- 

 parison very apt for our present purpose. Of the 

 magnetic effluvium we know perhaps as little as 

 we do of the nervous fluid. But, magnetic at- 

 traction being assumed, (it signifies nothing from 

 what cause it proceeds,) we can trace, or there 

 can be pointed out to us, with perfect clearness 

 and certainty, the mechanism, viz., the steel bars, 

 the wheels, the joints, the wires, by which the 

 motion so much admired is communicated to the 



