NATURAL THEOLOGY. '285 



would have been an encumbrance to the bird ; 

 yet there is no necessary connexion between a long 

 neck and a web-foot. In fact they do not usually 

 go together. How happens it, therefore, that they 

 meet only when a particular design demands the 

 aid of both ? 



II. This mutual relation arising from a sub- 

 serviency to a common purpose, is very observable 

 also in the parts of a rnole. The strong short legs 

 of that animal, the palmated feet, armed with 

 sharp nails, the pig-like nose, the teeth, the velvet 

 coat, the small 'external ear, the sagacious smell, 

 the sunk protected eye, all conduce to the utilities 

 or to the safety of its under-ground life. It is a 

 special purpose, especially consulted throughout. 

 The form of the feet fixes the character of the 

 animal. They are so many shovels ; they deter- 

 mine its action to that of rooting in the ground ; 

 and everything about its body agrees with its des- 

 tination. The cylindrical figure of the mole, as 

 well as the compactness of its form, arising from 

 the terseness of its limbs, proportionably lessens 

 its labour ; because, according to its bulk, it there- 

 by requires the least possible quantity of earth to 

 be removed for its progress. It has nearly the 

 same structure of the face and jaws as a swine, 

 and the same office for them. The nose is sharp, 

 slender, tendinous, strong, with a pair of nerves 

 going down to the end of it. The plush covering 

 which, by the smoothness, closeness, and polish 

 of the short piles that compose it, rejects the ad- 



