APPLICATION OF THE ARGUMENT 
21 
that he may let in the exercise, and thereby exhibit demon¬ 
strations of his wisdom. For then, i. e. such laws and lim¬ 
itations being laid down, it is as though one Being should 
have fixed certain rules; and, if w r e may so speak, provid¬ 
ed certain materials; and, afterwards, have committed to 
another Being out of these materials, and in subordination 
to theso rules, the task of drawing forth a creation: a sup¬ 
position which evidently leaves room, and induces indeed a 
necessity for contrivance. Nay, there may be many such 
agents, and many ranks of these. We do not advance this 
as a doctrine either of philosophy or of religion; but we say 
that the subject may safely be represented under this 
view, because the Deity, acting himself by general laws, 
will have the same consequences upon our reasoning, 
as if he had prescribed these laws to another. It has been 
said, that the problem of creation was, “ attraction and 
matter being given, to make a world out of them:’ , and, 
as above explained, this statement perhaps does not convey 
a false idea. 
We have made choice of the eye as an instance upon 
which to rest the argument of this chapter. Some single 
example was to be proposed; and the eye offered itself un¬ 
der the advantage of admitting of a strict comparison with 
optical instruments. The ear, it is probable, is no less 
artificially and mechanically adapted to its office than the 
eye. But we know less about it: we do not so well un¬ 
derstand the action, the use, or the mutual dependency of 
its internal parts. Its general form, however, both external 
and internal, is sufficient to show that it is an instrument 
adapted to the reception of. sound; that is to say, already 
knowing that sound consists in pulses of the air, we per¬ 
ceive, in the structure ofthe ear, a suitableness to receive im¬ 
pressions from this species of action, and to propagate these 
impressions to the brain. For of what does this structure 
consist? [PI. V. fig. 1.] An external ear, (the concha,) calcu¬ 
lated, like an ear-trumpet, to catch and collect the pulses of 
which we have spoken; in large quadrupeds, turning to 
the sound, and possessing a configuration, as well as mo¬ 
tion, evidently fitted for the office: of a tube which leads 
into the head, lying at the root of this outward ear, the 
folds and sinuses thereof tending and conducting the air 
towards it: of a thin membrane, like the pelt of a drum, 
stretched across this passage upon a bony rim: of a chain 
of moveable, and infinitely curious bones, forming a com- 
