146 NATURAL THEOLOGY. 



a sense was superadding a new use to a part 

 already wanted ; was taking a wise advantage of 

 an antecedent and a constitutional necessity."'' 



But to return to that which is the proper sub- 

 ject of the present section — the celerity and pre- 

 cision of muscular motion. These qualities may 

 be particularly observed in the execution of many 

 species of instrumental music, in w^hich the changes 



3<5Whcn our author describes the variety of functions performed 

 by the mouth and toncfue, he is in admiration at the simpHcity of 

 the instrument. But this is only an apparent simpUcity : the com- 

 plexity of structure is concealed. Indeed, it has been this very 

 consideration which led to the new investigations into the nervous 

 system. Without entering far into this subject, we take the 

 tongue in illustration. It is a fine organ of touch : it is the seat of 

 the sense of taste: it is necessary to deglutition : its modulations 

 are infinite in speech ; but the reason of a body so simple in its 

 outward form being capable of performing offices apparently so 

 discordant, is visible onh' to the anatomist, who traces the nerves 

 into this organ. Then he discovers, besides the nerve proceeding 

 from the papillae of the tongue to the sensorium, that there are 

 nerves of volition governing the muscles of the tongue. In addi- 

 tion to these, there is a nerve which regulates the action of swal- 

 lowing, and which combines the motions of the gullet with those 

 of the tongue; and in the same manner another nerve, tending to 

 the organ of voice in the larynx, branches oft' to the tongue, and 

 associates it with the organ of the voice, so as to produce articulate 

 language : these nervous cords are the true organization by which 

 one member, simple in its exteiior form, has a complexity in its 

 internal relations. And thus it is, that in many instances organs 

 which are apparently simple, and through which we perform many 

 offices so easily that we think not at all of what is necessary to 

 their execution, have yet internally, and to the eye of the anato- 

 mist, a thousand minute circumstances or relations on which the 

 perfection of their action depends. 



