136 NATURAL THEOLOGY. 



movable part of the body. A finger is not bent 

 and straightened without the contraction of two 

 muscles taking place. It is evident, therefore, that 

 the animal functions require that particular dispo- 

 sition of the muscles which we describe by the 

 name of antagonist muscles. And they are accor- 

 dingly so disposed. Every muscle is provided with 

 an adversary. They act like two sa^v} ers in a pit^ 

 by an opposite pull ; and nothing, surely, can more 

 strongly indicate design and attention to an end 

 than their being thus stationed, than this colloca- 

 tion. The nature of the muscular fibre being what 

 it is, the purposes of the animal could be answered 

 by no other. And not only the capacity for mo- 

 tion, but the aspect and symmetry of the body is 

 preserved by the muscles being marshalled accor- 

 ding to this order — e. g., the mouth is holden in 

 the middle of the face, and its angles kept in a state 

 of exact correspondency, by two muscles drawing 

 against and balancing each other. In a hemiple- 

 gia, when the muscle on one side is weakened, the 

 muscle on the other side draws the mouth awry. 

 III. Another property of the muscles, which 

 could only be the result of care, is, their being al- 

 most universally so disposed as not to obstruct or 

 interfere with one another's action. I know but 

 one instance in which this impediment is perceived. 

 We cannot easily swallow whilst we gape. This^ 

 I understand, is owing to the muscles employed in 

 the act of deglutition being so implicated with the 

 muscles of the lower jaw, that whilst these last are 



