208 NATURAL THEOLOGY. 



pose existed with respect to any of the productions 

 of nature, we may refer, with a considerable de- 

 gree of probability, other particulars to the same 

 intention ; such as the tints of flowers, the plumage 

 of birds, the furs of beasts, the bright scales of 

 fishes, the painted wings of butterflies and beetles, 

 the rich colours and spotted lustre of many tribes 

 of insects. 



There are parts also of animals ornamental, and 

 the properties by which they are so not subser- 

 vient, that we know of, to any other purpose. The 

 irides of most animals are very beautiful, without 

 conducing at all, by their beauty, to the perfection 

 of vision ; and nature could in no part have em- 

 ployed her pencil to so much advantage, because 

 no part presents itself so conspicuously to the ob- 

 server, or communicates so great an effect to the 

 whole aspect. 



In plants, especially in the flowers of plants, the 

 principle of beauty holds a still more considerable 

 place in their composition ; is still more confessed 

 than in animals. Why, for one instance out of a 

 thousand, does the corolla of the tulip, when ad- 

 vanced to its size and maturity, change its colour? 

 The purposes, so far as we can see, of vegetable 

 nutrition might have been carried on as well by its 

 continuing green. Or, if this could not be, consist- 

 ently with the progress of vegetable life, why break 

 into such a variety of colours ? This is no proper 

 effect of age, or of declension in the ascent of the 

 sap ; for that, like the autumnal tints, would have 



