AND FUNCTIONS OF ANIMALS. 51 
tant and intelligent office. Now supposing, or admitting, 
that we know nothing of the proper internal constitution of 
a gland, or of the mode of its acting upon the blood; then 
our situation is precisely like that of an unmechanical look¬ 
er-on, who stands by a stocking-loom, a corn-mill, a card- 
ing-machine, or a threshing-machine, at work, the fabric 
and mechanism of which, as well as all that passes within, 
is hidden from his sight by the outside case; or, if seen, 
would be too complicated for his uninformed, uninstructed 
understanding to comprehend. And what is that situation? 
This spectator, ignorant as he is, sees at one end a mate¬ 
rial enter the machine, as unground grain the mill, raw cot¬ 
ton the carding-machine, sheaves of unthreshed corn the 
threshing-machine; and, when he casts his eye to the other 
end of the apparatus, he sees the material issuing from it 
in a new state; and, what is more, in a state manifestly 
adapted to future uses; the grain in meal fit for the making 
of bread, the wool in rovings ready for spinning into 
threads, the sheaf in corn dressed for the mill. Is it ne¬ 
cessary that this man, in order to be convinced that design, 
that intention, that contrivance has been employed about 
the machine, should be allowed to pull it to pieces; should 
be enabled to examine the parts separately; explore their 
action upon one another, or their operation, whether simul¬ 
taneous or successive, upon the material which is presented 
to them? He may long to do this, to gratify his curiosity; 
he may desire to do it to improve his theoretic know¬ 
ledge; or he may have a more substantial reason for re¬ 
questing it, if he happen, instead of a common visiter, to 
be a mill wright by profession, or a person sometimes call¬ 
ed in to repair such-like machines when out of order; but, 
for the purpose of ascertaining the existence of counsel 
and design in the formation of the machine, he wants no 
such intromission or privity. What he sees is sufficient. 
The effect upon the material, the change produced in it, 
the utility of that change for future applications, abundantly 
testify, be the concealed part of the machine or of its con¬ 
struction what it may, the hand and agency of a contriver. 
If any confirmation were wanting to the evidence which 
the animal secretions afford of design, it may be derived, 
as has been already hinted, from their variety, and from 
their appropriation to their place and use. They all come 
from the same blood: they are all drawn off by glands: yet 
the produce is very different, and the difference exactly 
adapted to the work which is to be done, or the end to be 
answered. No account can be given of this, without re- 
