210 NATURAL THEOLOGY. 



and more regular than in man. Every horse, ox, 

 sheep, swine, when at Hberty to choose, and when 

 in a natural state, that is, when not vitiated by 

 habits forced upon it, eats and rejects the same 

 plants. Many insects which feed upon particular 

 plants, will rather die than change their appropri- 

 ate leaf. All this looks like a determination in the 

 sense itself to particular tastes. In like manner, 

 smells affect the nose with sensations pleasurable 

 or disgusting. Some sounds, or compositions of 

 sound, delight the ear: others torture it. Habit 

 can do much in all these cases, (and it is well for 

 us that it can ; for it is this power which recon- 

 ciles us to many necessities :) but has the distinc- 

 tion, in the mean time, of agreeable and disagree- 

 able, no foundation in the sense itself? What is 

 true of the other senses is most probably true of 

 the eye, (the analogy is irresistible,) viz., that there 

 belongs to it an original constitution, fitted to re- 

 ceive pleasure from some impressions, and pain from 

 others. 



I do not however know, that the argument which 

 alleges beauty as a final cause rests upon this con- 

 cession. We possess a sense of beauty, however 

 we come by it. It in fact exists. Things are not 

 indifterent to this sense ; all objects do not suit it ; 

 many, which we see, are agreeable to it : many 

 others disagreeable. It is certainly not the effect 

 of habit upon the particular object, because the 

 most agreeable objects are often the most rare ; 

 many which are very common, continue to be offen- 



