PROOFS OF DESIGN. 235 



scribed the Unity and Universality of Providential care, as 

 extending from the construction of a ring of two hundred 

 thousand miles diameter, to surround the body of Saturn, 

 and be suspended, like a magnificent arch, above the heads 

 of his inhabitants, to the concerting and providing an ap- 

 propriate mechanism for the clasping and reclasping of 

 the filaments in the feather of the Humming-bird. The 

 geologist descries a no less striking assemblage of curious 

 provisions, and delicate mechanisms, extending from the 

 entire circumference of the crust of our planet, to the mi- 

 nutest curl of the smallest fibre in each component lamina 

 of the pen of the fossil Loligo. He finds these pens uni- 

 formly associated with the same pecuhar defensive provi- 

 sion of an internal ink-b^ig,. which is similarly associated 

 with the pen of the living Loligo in our actual seas ; and 

 hence he concludes, that such a union of contrivances, so 

 nicely adjusted to the wants and weaknesses of the crea- 

 tures in which they occur, could never have resulted from 

 the bUndness of chance, but could only have originated in 

 the will and intention of the Creator. 



SECTION III. 



Proofs of Design in the Mechanism of Fossil Chambered 



Shells. 



NAUTILUS. 



I SHALL select from the family of Multilocular, or Cham- 

 bered shells, the few examples which I shall introduce from 

 mineral conchology, with a view of illustrating certain 

 points that have relation to the object of the present- 

 Treatise. 



I select these, first, because they afford proofs of me- 



