CONTRIVANCE A NECESSITY. 131 



the depths are broken up, and the clouds drop 

 down the dew."* 



Every instance of Contrivance which we can 

 thoroughly follow and understand, has an in- 

 tense interest — as casting light upon this method 

 of the Divine government, and upon the ana- 

 logy between the operations of our own minds 

 and the operations of the Creator. Some in- 

 stances will strike us more than others — and 

 those will strike us most which stand in some 

 near comparison with our own human efforts of 

 ingenuity and contrivance. There is one such 

 instance which I propose to consider in this 

 chapter — the machinery by which a great pur- 

 pose has been accomplished in Nature — a purpose 

 which Man has never been able to accomplish 

 in art, and that is the Navigation of the Air. 

 No more beautiful example can be found, even 

 in the wide and rich domain of Animal Me- 

 chanics — none in which we can trace more clearly, 

 too, the mode and method in which laws the 

 most rigorous and exact, are used as the supple 

 instruments of Purpose. 



* Prov. iii. 19, 20. 



