2S8 NATURAL THEOLOGY. 



CHAPTER XVI. 



COMPENSATION. 



Compensation is a species of relation. It is 

 relation when the defects of one part, or of one 

 organ, are supplied by the structure of another 

 part, or of another organ. Thus — 



I. The short unbending neck of the elephant is 

 compensated by the length and flexibility of his 

 proboscis. He could not have reached the ground 

 without it ; or, if it be supposed that he might have 

 fed upon the fruit, leaves, or branches of trees, 

 how was he to drink ? Should it be asked, why 

 is the elephant's neck so short? it may be snswer- 

 ed, that the weight of a head so heavy could not 

 have been supported at the end of a longer lever. 

 To a form, therefore, in some respects necessary, 

 but in some respects also inadequate to the occa- 

 sion of the animal, a supplement is added, which 

 exactly makes up the deficiency under which he 

 laboured. 



If it be suggested that this proboscis may have 

 been produced, in a long course of generations, by 

 the constant endeavour of the elephant to thrust 

 out its nose, (which is the general hypothesis by 

 which it has lately been attempted to account for 



