ACCIDENTAL ECONOMY IN NATURE. 337 
one intention of this said faculty was not to keep 
the perceptions awake during intervals of mental 
false appearance of intentional agreement, similar to cause and 
effect. Thus it is that in hasty moments of observation we ascribe 
to Providence what is due to our interferences with his works, and 
setting these remarks down as additions to our insight into the 
secrets of nature, we preclude ourselves afterwards from giving 
due weight to real cases of economy because they are not allied in 
purpose to the suppositious one. Although however there is in 
such instances frequently, or most commonly, an absolute accor¬ 
dance of the subjects similar to designed economy, it often happens 
that they only appear to agree, whilst closer inspection detects a 
want of adaptation. 
It is an accidental economy that the appetites of many birds 
are so accommodating as to enable them to feed on substances 
foreign to the country of which they are natives,—the Chaffinch 
on the seeds of the sunflower of our gardens for instance. 
It is a portion of the providence and economy with which our 
earth has been formed, that mountains and hills occur over its 
surface, by which the clouds are intercepted and contribute to the 
fertilization of the lower lands, by which vast loads of snow are 
accumulated and augment the bulk of rivers, by which springs 
arising on their sides or summits pass down and onwards 
through the lower tracts with a force commensurate to certain 
objects required to be attained, and for the immediate purpose 
of supplying this necessary to all living subjects of creation resi¬ 
dent therein, by which the superficies of the globe is greatly 
increased, and by which the winds are obstructed and divided into 
currents, so as to dissipate occumulating noxious vapours, and act 
in various ways favorably on the earth by directing their power 
on it from different quarters. But it is an accidental piece of eco¬ 
nomy and providence that mountains act as the resorts of man 
under oppression and pursuit, or that by encircling any region 
they render it more secure from invasion, or enable the sceptres of 
adjacent kingdoms to be wielded the more effectually. 
R R 
