290 NATURAL THEOLOGY. 



the relation which this organ bears to the peculiar 

 figure of the animal to which it belongs. And 

 herein all things correspond. The necessity of the 

 elephant's proboscis arises from the shortness of 

 his neck : the shortness of the neck is rendered 

 necessary by the weight of the head. Were we to 

 enter into an examination of the structure and 

 anatomy of the proboscis itself, we should see in 

 it one of the most curious of all examples of ani- 

 mal mechanism. The disposition of the ringlets 

 and fibres, for the purpose, first, of forming a long 

 cartilaginous pipe ; secondly, of contracting and 

 lengthening that pipe ; thirdly, of turning it in 

 every direction at the will of the animal ; with the 

 superadd ition at the end, of a fleshy production, of 

 about the length and thickness of a finger, and 

 performing the office of a finger, so as to pick up 

 a straw from the ground. These properties of the 

 same organ, taken together, exhibit a specimen, 

 not only of design, (which is attested by the ad- 

 vantage,) but of consummate art, and, as I may 

 say, of elaborate preparation, in accomplishing 

 that design. 



II. The hook in the wing of a hat is strictly a 

 mechanical, and, also, a compensating contrivance. 

 At the angle of its wing there is a bent claw, ex- 

 actly in the form of a hook, by wliich the bat at- 

 taches itself to the sides of rocks, caves, and build- 

 ings, laying hold of crevices, joinings, chinks and 

 roughnesses. It hooks itself by this claw ; remains 

 suspended by this hold ; takes its flight from this 



