RELATIONS. 
155 
cies of relation. The sexes are manifestly made for each 
other. They form the grand relation of animated nature; 
universal, organic,-mechanical: subsisting like the clear¬ 
est relations of art, in different individuals; unequivocal, 
inexplicable without design. 
So much so, that were every other proof of contrivance 
in nature dubious or obscure, this alone would be suffi¬ 
cient. The example is complete. Nothing is wanting to 
the argument. I see no way whatever of getting over it. 
V. The teats of animals, which give suck, bear a re¬ 
lation to the mouth of the suckling progeny; particularly 
to the lips and tongue. Here also, as before, is a corres¬ 
pondency of parts; which parts subsist in different indi¬ 
viduals. 
These are general relations, or the relations of parts 
which are found, either in all animals, or in large classes 
and descriptions of animals. Particular relations, or the 
relations which subsist between the particular configura¬ 
tion of one or more parts of certain species of animals, 
and the particular configuration of one or more other parts 
of the same animal, (which is the sort of relation that is 
perhaps most striking,) are such as the following: 
I. In the swan ; the web foot, the spoon bill, the long 
neck, the thick down, the graminivorous stomach, bear all 
a relation to one another, inasmuch as they all concur in 
one design, that of supplying the occasions of an aquatic 
fowl, floating upon the surface of shallow pools of water, 
and seeking its food at the bottom. Begin with any one 
of these particularities of structure, and observe how the 
rest follow it. The web foot qualifies the bird for swimming; 
the spoon bill enables it to graze. But how is an animal, 
floating upon the surface of pools of water, to graze at the 
bottom, except by the mediation of a long neck? A long 
neck accordingly is given to it. Again, a warm-blooded 
animal, which was to pass its life upon water, required a 
defence against the coldness of that element. Such a de¬ 
fence is furnished to the swan, in the muff in which its body 
is wrapped. But all this outward apparatus would have 
been in vain, if the intestinal system had not been suited 
to the digestion of vegetable substances. I say, suited to 
the digestion of vegetable substances: for it is well known, 
that there are two intestinal systems found in birds, one 
with a membranous stomach and a gastric juice, capable 
of dissolving animal substances alone; the other with a 
crop and gizzard, calculated for the moistening, bruising 
and afterwards digesting, of vegetable aliment. 
