6 
STATE OF THE ARGUMENT. 
find a series of wheels, the teeth of which catch in, and 
apply to each other, conducting the motion from the fusee 
to the balance, and from the balance to the pointer; and at 
the same time, by the size and shape of those wheels, so 
regulating that motion, as to terminate in causing an index, 
by an equable and measured progression, to pass over a 
given space in a given time. We take notice that the 
wheels are made of brass in order to keep them from rust; 
the springs of steel, no other metal being so elastic; that 
over the face of the watch there is placed a glass, a material 
employed in no other part of the work; but in the room of 
which, if there had been any other than a transparent sub¬ 
stance, the hour could not be seen without opening the 
case. This mechanism being observed (it requires indeed 
an examination of the instrument, and perhaps some pre¬ 
vious knowledge of the subject, to perceive and understand 
it; but being once, as we have said, observed and under¬ 
stood,) the inference, we think, is inevitable ; that the 
watch must haveTiacf a maker; that there must have exist¬ 
ed, at sometime, and at some place or other, an artificer or 
artificers, who formed it for the purpose which we find it 
actually to answer ; who comprehended its construction, 
and designed its use. 
I. Nor would it, I apprehend, weaken the conclusion, 
that we had never seen a watch made: that we had never 
known an artist capable of making one; that we were alto¬ 
gether incapable of executing such a piece of workman¬ 
ship ourselves, or of understanding in what manner it was 
performed ; all this being no more than what is true of some 
exquisite remains of ancient art, of some lost arts, and, to 
the generality of mankind, of the more curious produc¬ 
tions of modern manufacture. Does one man in a million 
know how oval frames are turned? Ignorance of this kind 
exalts our opinion of the unseen and unknown artist’s skill, 
if he be unseen and unknown, but raises no doubt in our 
minds of the existence and agency of such an artist, at 
some former time, and in some place or other. Nor can 
I perceive that it varies at all the inference, whether the 
question arise concerning a human agent, or concerning an 
agent of a different species, or an agent possessing, hi 
some respects, a different nature. 
II. Neither, secondly, would it invalidate our conclu¬ 
sion, that the watch sometimes went wrong, or that it sel¬ 
dom went exactly right. The purpose of the machinery, 
the design and the designer, might be evident, and in the 
case supposed would be evident, in whatever way we ac- 
