OF THE ANIMAL STRUCTURE, &C. 
109 
CHAPTER XI. 
OF THE ANIMAL STRUCTURE REGARDED AS A MASS. 
Contemplating an animal body in its collective capacity, 
we cannot forget to notice, what a number of instruments 
are brought together, and often within how small a com¬ 
pass. It is a cluster of contrivances. In a Canary bird, 
for instance, and in the single ounce of matter which com¬ 
poses its body, (but which seems to be all employed,) we 
have instruments for eating, for digesting, for nourishment, 
for breathing, for generation, for running, for flying, for 
seeing, for hearing, for smelling, each appropriate,—each 
entirely different from all the rest. 
The human, or indeed the animal frame, considered as 
a mass or assemblage, exhibits in its composition three 
properties, which have long struck my mind as indubitable 
evidences, not only of design, but of a great deal of atten¬ 
tion and accuracy in prosecuting the design. 
I. The first is, the exact correspondency of the two 
sides of the same animal; the right hand answering to the 
left, leg to leg, eye to eye, one side of the countenance to 
the other; and with a precision, to imitate which in any 
tolerable degree, forms one of the difficulties of statuary, 
and requires, on the part of the artist, a constant attention 
to this property of his work, distinct from every other. 
It is the most difficult thing that can be to get a wig 
made even; yet how seldom is the face awry! And what 
care is taken that it should not be so, the anatomy of its 
bones demonstrates. The upper part of the face is com¬ 
posed of thirteen bones, six on each side, answering each 
to each, and the thirteenth, without a fellow, in the mid¬ 
dle: the lower part of the face is in like manner composed 
of six bones, three on each side respectively corresponding, 
and the lower jaw in the centre. In building an arch, could 
more be done in order to make the curve true , i. e. the 
parts equi-distant from the middle, alike in figure and po¬ 
sition ? 
The exact resemblance of the eyes, considering how 
compounded this organ is in its structure, how various and 
how delicate are the shades of color with which its iris is 
tinged; how differently, as to effect upon appearance, the 
eye may be mounted in its socket, and how differently in 
different heads eyes actually are set,—is a property of an 
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