AND PHYSIOLOGY. 



425 



organs and their functions are adapted to promote the welfare 

 of the individual. They may incidentally result in evil ; but 

 the object was to produce happiness. One object of the ner- 

 vous system was to guard us against injuries by putting us 

 on our guard against them. But in case of injury or diseased 

 action, intense* suffering often results ; and while enduring it 

 w r e are apt to forget the grand object of the nerves of sensa- 

 tion, and imagine incidental to be intentional evil. So carni- 

 vorous teeth and poison fangs are intended to provide animals 

 with food and the means of defense. But they may produce 

 great incidental evils by being used as animals have the power 

 to do, and are sometimes incited to do v aside from the normal 

 objects for which they were given. Indeed there is no organ 

 or operation whose leading object is not the production of hap- 

 piness ; and therefore we infer the predominant disposition of 

 the Author of nature to be benevolent. 



799. Pleasure Superadded to Functions when not Re- 

 quired. — A second fact leading to the same conclusion is, that 

 often pleasure is superadded to animal functions, when it is 

 unnecessary to their perfect performance. It was not neces- 

 sary to perfect vision that the colors in nature should be 

 agreeable ; that the earth, for instance, should be green, or 

 that colors in flowers should be harmoniously blended. It 

 was not necessary for the support of the system that gusta- 

 tory enjoyment should accompany the reception of food ; for 

 severe hunger would have been sufficient to impel us to eat, 

 even though suffering followed. And so in a thousand other 

 instances that might be named. On the other hand, no exam- 

 ple can be founl where unnecessary pain attends functional 

 operations. The Author of such a system must be benevolent. 



800. More Modes than One Provided for the same Func- 

 tions. — A third evidence of benevolent design in the Author 

 of the animal system is the provision often made of more than 

 one mode for the performance of important functions. In the 

 act of swallowing, for instance, the danger is great that par- 



