154 NATURAL THEOLOGY. 



stai't up. The simplicity, yet the clearness of this 

 contrivance, its exact resemblance to established 

 resources of art, place it amongst the most indu- 

 bitable manifestations of design with which we 

 are acquainted. 



There is also a further use to be made of the 

 present example, and that is, as it precisely con- 

 tradicts the opinion that the parts of animals may 

 have been all formed by what is called appetency, 

 i. e., endeavour perpetuated and imperceptibly 

 workino^ its effect through an incalculable series 

 of generations. We have here no endeavour, but 

 the reverse of it — a constant renitency and re- 

 luctance. The endeavour is all the other way. 

 The pressure of the ligament constrains the ten- 

 dons ; the tendons re-act upon the pressure of the 

 ligament. It is impossible that the ligament 

 should ever have been generated by the exercise 

 of the tendon, or in the course of that exercise, 

 forasmuch as the force of the tendon perpendicu- 

 larly resists the fibre which confines it, and is con- 

 stantly endeavouring, not to form, but to rupture 

 and displace, the threads of which the ligament is 

 composed. 



Keill has reckoned up in the human body four 

 hundred and forty-six muscles, dissectible and 

 describable; and hath assigned a use to every 



