COMPENSATION. 
157 
ance to which the life of the animal must constantly ex¬ 
pose it. How indeed was the mole, working its way un¬ 
der ground, to guard its eyes at all? In order to meet 
this difficulty, the eyes are made scarcely larger than the 
head of a corking-pin; and these minute globules are sunk 
so deep in the skull, and lie so sheltered within the velvet 
of its covering, as that any contraction of what may be 
called the eye brows, not only closes up the apertures 
which lead to the eyes, but presents a cushion, as it were, 
to any sharp or protruding substance, which might push 
against them. This aperture, even in its ordinary state, is 
like a pin-hole in a piece of velvet, scarcely pervious to 
loose particles of earth. 
Observe then, in this structure, that which we call re¬ 
lation. There is no natural connexion between a small 
sunk eye and a shovel palmated foot. Palmated feet might 
have been joined with goggle eyes; or small eyes might 
have been joined with feet of any other form. What was 
it therefore which brought them together in the mole? 
That which brought together the barrel, the chain, and the 
fusee, in a watch; design: and design, in both cases, in¬ 
ferred from the relation which the parts bear to one an¬ 
other in the prosecution of a common purpose. As hath 
already been observed, there are different ways of stating 
the relation, according as we set out from a different part. 
In the instance before us, we may either consider the 
shape of the feet, as qualifying the animal for that mode 
of life and inhabitation to which the structure of its eyes 
confines it; or we may consider the structure of the eye, 
as the only one which would have suited with the action 
to which the feet are adapted. The relation is manifest, 
whichever of the parts related we place first in the order 
of our consideration. In a word; the feet of the mole are 
made for digging; the neck, nose, eyes, ears, and skin, are 
peculiarly adapted to an under-ground life; and this is 
what I call relation. [PI. XXX. fig. 1.] 
CHAPTER XVI. 
COMPENSATION. 
Compensation is a species of relation. It is relation 
when the defects of one part, or of one organ, are supplied 
O 
