exceed the intricacy, complication, or beauty of the organ or sys- tem of organs thus prepared, for the absolutely necessary and con- tinuous purification of the blood, and for its distribution in an unin- terrupted flux and reflux to every part of the body. This process goes on without our supervision. It is as regular during sleep as during our waking hours.
Food is as necessary for our support as air. The unborn infant needs no food. It is included in the circulation of its mother. In the state on which it is soon to enter food will be a necessity. Full provision is made beforehand for its reception and use. Teeth are embedded in the jaw for its mastication ; sahvary glands to furnish the fluid for its chemical preparation for the stomach ; an oesopha- gus to convey it to the stomach, where it meets with a fluid found nowhere else, capable of dissolving and digesting it. It then comes into contact with a set of absorbent vessels which select from it the elements suited for the wants of the body and reject all the rest. The valuable portion is poured into the blood by which, it is dis- tributed, each constituent going to its own place and answering its predestined purpose ; carbon to be consumed to keep up the vital heat, lime to the bones, fibrine to the muscles, phosphorus to the brain and nerves.
The child before birth has no need of organs for locomotion or for apprehending external objects. But it was foreseen that it would need them, and therefore they are prepared beforehand. The bones are grooved for the reception of muscles, and have projections for points of support ; joints of all kinds, hinge and ball and socket, for the flexure of the limbs ; the instruments for motion, the contractile fibres, arranged and attached, according to the strict laws of mechanics, so as best to secure the two ends of symmetry and power. Thus the body is a perfect marvel of mechanical con- trivances. The several organs, therefore, of the animal frame, viewed separately, present the most incontestible evidence of fore- sight, intelligence, and wisdom. This, however, is only a small part of the evidence of design furnished even by the body.
Deiign in the Relation of one Organ to Another. 2. Every animal is a complete whole. Each part has a designed and predetermined reference to every other part. The organs of sight, hearing, breathing, nutrition, locomotion, etc., are so arranged and adjusted as to answer a common purpose to the best advantage. Besides, these organs, although common to all animals (at least to all above the lowest), are modified in each genus and species to
220 PART I. — THEOLOGY. [Ch. H. — Theism
meet its peculiar necessities. If the animal is to live on the land all its organs are adapted to that condition. If it is to live in the water or move through the air, all is prepared beforehand for that destiijation. And more than this, if one organ be designed for some special use, all the rest are modified in accordance with that purpose. If the stomach is suited for the digestion of flesh, then the teeth, the limbs, the claws, are all adapted to secure and pre- pare tjie proper aliment. So complete is the adaptation that the anatomist can determine from a single bone the genus or species to which the animal belonged. Birds wliich wade in the water have long legs and long necks. Those which float on the surface, have web feet, and feathers impenetrable by water ; two things which have causal relation, and which are united by a kind of intelligence external to the animal itself. Birds which fly in the air are fitted for their destiny by hollow bones, wide-spread wings, and great accumulation of muscles on the breast. Those which climb trees have feet and tail adapted for that purpose, and, as in the case of the wood-pecker, a sharp bill for boring the tree and a barbed tongue to seize its food. These modifications of animal structure are endless, all showing an external intelligence cognizant of the necessities of every distinct species.
The Adaptation of the Organs to the Instinct of Animals.
3. There is a correspondence between the organs of every animal and the instincts by which it is endowed. Beasts and birds of prey having the instinct to feed on flesh have all the organs requisite to satisfy this inward craving. Those having an instinct for vegeta- ble food, have teeth and stomachs adapted for that purpose. The bee whose body secretes wax, has tlie instinct to build cells ; the spider furnished with the peculiar viscid matter, and apparatus for spinning it, makes a web and watches for its prey. So it is through- out all animated nature. Here then are two very distinct things : instinct and corporeal organs ; the instinct cannot account for the organs nor the organs for the instinct ; and yet they are never found the one without the other. They of necessity, therefore, imply an intelligence which implants the instinct and furnishes the appropriate organs.
Argument from Prevision.
4. There cannot be a more decisive proof of intelligence than prevision ; preparation for an event in the future. The world is fiill of evidence of such prevision. It is seen not only in the prep-