368 ARTICULATA. ANNELIDA. 



composed of two blades, between which, it is lodged, 

 which closing upon it when drawn inwards, effectual- 

 ly protect the flesh from injury. 



The insane efforts of some French philosophers to 

 shut out all recognition of the creating God, even 

 from a contemplation of the works of His own hand, 

 need no more triumphant a refutation than an 

 appeal to this worm. Was a structure so elaborate, 

 a mechanism so beautiful, produced by "the power 

 of attraction acting on irritable atoms ?" or did " the 

 penetrating force of expansive fluids" form these 

 exquisite organs of progression and defence, point 

 their extremities, and barb their edges? or was it 

 the " stimulus arising from a consciousness of want," 

 that enclosed them in these smooth elastic sheaths ? 

 "Ask now the beasts, and they shall teach thee; and 

 the fowls of the air, and they shall tell thee : or 

 speak to the earth, and it shall teach thee ; and the 

 fishes of the sea shall declare unto thee. Who 

 knoweth not in all these, that the hand of the LORD 

 hath wrought this ?"* 



* Job xii. 79. 



