experience. The argument is not, Every house, ship, telescope, or other instrument or machine, we ever saw had an intelHgent maker, therefore we may take it for granted that any similar work of art was not formed by chance or by the operation of Wind, unconscious forces. The argument rather is, Such is the nature of design, that it of necessity impHes an intelligent agent ; and, therefore, where- ever, or whenever we see evidence of design we are convinced that it is to be referred to the operation of mind. On this ground we are not only authorized, but compelled to apply the argument from design far beyond the limits of experience, and to say : It is just as evident that the world had an intelligent creator, as that a book had an author. If a man can believe that a book was written by chance, or by blind, unconscious force, then, and not otherwise, can he rationally deny the validity of the argument from design in proof of the existence of a personal God.
B. Evidences of Design in the World. This is a boundless subject. One of the most important and valuable of the " Bridgewater Treatises," the volume by Dr. Charles Bell, is devoted to " The Hand, its mechanism and vital endowments as evincing design." Hundreds of volumes would not be sufficient to exhibit the evidence of the intelligent adaptation of means to an end, which the world everywhere affords. In the few pages now at command all that can be attempted, is an indication of the nature of this evidence. ^
Design in Shigle Organs. 1. No work of human art can compare with the nicety and com- pleteness of the separate organs of organized bodies for the pur- pose for which they are designed. In the eye, for example, there
1 It may be well to give the titles of the valuable series of the Bridgewater Treatises de- voted to this subject, besides the work of Dr. Bell mentioned in the text. The volumes are, The Adiiptation of External Nature to the Moral and Intellectual Constitution of Man, b>- Dr. Thomas Chalmers; On the Adaptation of External Nature to the Physical Constitution of Man, by John Kidd; Astronomy and General Physics tretUed in Reference to Natural Theoloyy, by William Whewell ; Animal and Vegetable Physiology considered in Reference to Natural The- ology, by Peter Mark Koget; Geology and Mineralogy considered in Reference to Natural Theology, by William Buckland ; The Power, Wisdom, atid Goodness of God as manifested in the Creation of Animals, by William Kirby; Chemistry, Meteorology, and the Function of Di- gestion considered in Reference to Natural Theology, by William Prout. The Ninth Bridge- water Treatise,hy C. Babbage; Footprints of the Creator, by Hugh Miller; Theoloyie de la N-Jture, by H. Durkheim (1852, 3 vols. 8vo.); Butler's Analogy of Religion and Nature; Paley's Natural Theology; Dr. McCosh's Typicai Forms and Special Ends in Creation; Dr. James Buchanan's Faith in God and Modern Atheism compared, 2 vols. Svo; and Dr John Tulloch's (Principal of St. Mary's College, St. Andrew's) Theism; The Witness of. Reason and Nature to an All- Wise and Beneficent Creator, may also be mentioned.
218 PAKT L — THEOLOGY. [Ch. II. — Theism
is tlie most perfect optical instrument constructed in accordance with tlie hidden laws of light. We find there the only nerve in the body susceptible of the impi'essions of light and color. That nerve is spread out on the retina. The light is admitted through an orifice in the ball, which opening by the most delicate arrange- ment of muscles is enlarged or contracted, according to the degree of light which falls on the retina, which enlargement or contraction is not dependent on the will, but on the stimulus of the light itself. Light, however, merely passing through an orifice would make no image of the object from which it was reflected. It is, therefore, made to pass through lenses perfect in form so to refi'act the rays as to bring them to a proper focus on the retina. If the inner chamber of the eye were white, it would so reflect the rays enter- ing the pupil at every angle as to render vision impossible. That chamber, and that alone, is lined with a black pigment. By a del- icate muscular arrangement the eye is enabled to adapt itself to the distance of external objects so that the proper focus may be preserved. These are a small part of the wonders exhibited by this single organ of the body. This organ was fashioned in the darkness of the womb, with a self-evident reference to the nature and properties of light, of which the creature for whose use it was fashioned had neither knowledge or experience. If the eye, there- fore, does not indicate the intelligent adaptation of means to an end, no such adaptation can be found in any work of human in- genuity.
The same remarks apply to the ear. In its cavity lies the audi- tory nerve. A tortuous passage is formed in the bony structure of the skull. The orifice of that passage is covered by a membrane to receive the vibration of the air ; on the centre of that membrane rests the termination of a small bone so connected as to convey those vibrations to the only nerve capable of receiving or interpret- ing them, or of transmitting them to the brain. It is by this organ, constructed according to the recondite principles of acoustics, that our intercourse with our fellow- men is principally kept up ; through which the marvels of speech, all the charms of music and eloquence become possible for man.
We cannot live without a constant supply of oxygen, which must every moment be brought to act upon the blood, to vitalize it, and by combining with the carbon it contains fit it for renewed use. The mfant, therefore, comes into the world with an apparatus prepared for that purpose. In its formative state, it did not breathe. Yet it had iimgs. They were given for a foreseen necessity. Nothing can