ON CHAPTERS I. AND II., AND INTKODUCTORY TO 

 THE MECHANISM OF THE FRAME. 



Archdeacon Paley has, in these two introduc- 

 tory chapters, given us the advantage of simple 

 but forcible language, with extreme ingenuity, in 

 illustration. But for his example, we should have 

 felt some hesitation in making so close a compari- 

 son between design, as exhibited by the Creator 

 in the animal structure, and the mere mechanism, 

 the operose and imperfect contrivances of human 

 art. 



Certainly, there may be a comparison ; for a 

 superficial and rapid survey of the animal body 

 may convey the notion of an apparatus of levers, 

 pullies, and ropes — which may be compared with 

 the spring, barrel, and fusee, the wheels and pin- 

 ions, of a watch. But if we study the texture of 

 animal bodies more curiously, and especially if we 

 compare animals with each other — for example, 

 the simple structure of the lower creatures with 

 the complicated structure of those higher in the 

 scale of existence-— we shall see, that in the lowest 

 hnks of the chain animals are so simple, that we 

 should almost call them homogeneous ; and yet in 

 these we find lifb, sensibility, and motion. It is in 

 the animals higher in the scale that we discover 

 17* 



