198 NATURAL TIIEOLOGV. 



dered more remarkable by the three following 

 considerations : — 



1. The limbs, seiiarately taken, have not this cor- 

 relation of parts, but the contrary of it. A knife 

 drawn down the chine cuts the human body into 

 two parts, externally equal and alike ; you cannot 

 draw a straight line which will divide a hand, a 

 foot, the leg, the thigh, the cheek, the eye, the ear, 

 into two parts equal and alike. Those parts 

 which are placed upon the middle or partition line 

 of the body, or which traverse that line — as the 

 nose, the tongue, and the lips — may be so 

 divided, or, more properly speaking, are double 

 organs ; but other parts cannot. This shows that 

 the correspondency which we have been describ- 

 ing does not arise by any necessity in the nature 

 of the subject ; for, if necessary, it would be uni- 

 versal ; whereas it is observed only in the system 

 or assemblage. It is not true of the separate parts : 

 that is to say, it is not found where it conduces to 

 beauty or utility ; it is found where it would 

 subsist at the expense of both. The two wings of 

 a bird always correspond : the two sides of a fea- 

 ther frequently do not. In centipedes, millepedes, 

 and the whole tribe of insects, no two legs on the 

 same side are alike ; yet there is the most exact 

 parity between the legs opposite to one another. 



2. The next circumstance to be remarked is, 

 that, whilst the cavities of the body are so confi- 

 gurated, as externally to exhibit the most exact 

 correspondency of the opposite sides, the contents 



