FIRST WEEK-TUESDAY.

THE CHARACTER IMPRESSED ON NATURE.CONTRIVANCE.

FROM the example stated yesterday, some idea may be formed of the kind of compensation for permitted evils which is every where to be discovered in the works of creation; but another, and equally marked feature in the face of nature, is that of the most ingenious contrivances, to avoid evils which would otherwise occur, or to insure advantages which could not otherwise be obtained. An example or two of this unequivocal proof of a wise and beneficent Designer will illustrate this subject.

For these I shall take advantage of the ingenious Treatise of Sir Charles Bell on the Human Hand, which is, throughout, a most masterly exposition of the argument, arising from this very view. The first which I select is taken from his chapter on the "Sensibility of the Surface, compared with the deeper parts." That the skin is extremely sensible to pain, no one need be informed; but few, perhaps, have sufficiently attended to the fact, which is yet within the reach of any person's observation, that the pain does not increase in proportion to the depth of the wound, the sensibility being almost exclusively confined to the outward covering of the body. This has been very convincingly proved to be a contrivance of much wisdom and benevolence. After stating the fact, and showing it to be a matter of daily surgical experience, the author justly observes, that the obvious intention is, that the skin should be a safeguard to the delicate textures which are contained within, by forcing us to avoid injuries; and that it does afford us a more effectual defence than if our bodies were covered with the hide of a rhinoceros.

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In pursuing the inquiry," says he, "we learn with much interest, that when the bones, joints, and all the

membranes and ligaments which cover them are exposed, they may be cut, pricked, or even burned, without the patient or the animal suffering the slightest pain. These facts must appear to be conclusive; for who, witnessing these instances of insensibility, would not conclude that the parts were devoid of sensation; but when we take the true philosophical, and, I may say, religious view of the subject, and consider that pain is not an evil, but given for benevolent purposes, and for some important object, we should be unwilling to terminate the investigation here.

"In the first place, we must perceive, that, if a sensibility similar to that of the skin had been given to these internal parts, it must have remained unexercised. Had they been made sensible to pricking and burning, they would have possessed a quality which would never have been useful, since no such injuries can reach them, or never without warning being received through the sensibility of the skin.

66 But, further, if we find that sensibility to pain is a benevolent provision, and is bestowed for the purpose of warning us to avoid such violence as would affect the functions or uses of the parts, we may yet inquire, whe- . ther any injury can reach these internal parts, without the sensibility of the skin being excited. Now, of this there can be no doubt, for they are subject to sprain, and rupture, and shocks, without the skin being implicated in the accident. If we have been correct in our inference, there should be a provision to guide us in the safe exercise of the limbs; and, notwithstanding what has been apparently demonstrated of the insensibility of these internal parts, they must possess an appropriate sensibility, or it would imply an imperfection. With these reflections we recur to experiment, and we find that the parts which are insensible to pricking, cutting, and burning, are actually sensible to concussion, to stretching, or laceration.

"How consistent, then, and beautiful is the distribu

tion of this quality of life! The sensibility of pain varies with the function of the part. The skin is endowed with sensibility to every possible injurious impression which may be made upon it; but had this kind and degree of sensibility been made universal, we should have been racked with pain in the common motions of the body; the mere weight of one part on another, or the Imotion of the joint, would have been attended with that degree of suffering which we experience in using or walking upon an inflamed limb.

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But, on the other hand, had the deeper parts possessed no sensibility, we should have had no guide in our exertions. They have a sensibility limited to the kind of injury which it is possible may reach them, and which teaches us what we can do with impunity. If we leap from too great a height, or carry too great a burden, or attempt to interrupt a body whose impetus is too great for us, we are warned of the danger as effectually by this internal sensibility, as we are of the approach of a sharp point, or a hot iron to the skin.”*

To this striking pathological argument for benevolent contrivance, might be added proofs without end, from the principles of mechanics. The whole animal frame, indeed, is a piece of the most exquisite mechanism, and the studies of the anatomist abound with demonstrations .. of the most satisfactory kind. Not only do we find every joint, bone, and sinew, of every species of animal, so adapted to all the rest, and to the nature of its food and habits, as to constitute a perfect system, considered in itself, but when one species of living creatures is compared with others, new kinds of relations and adaptations are discovered, which greatly extend our views of creative contrivance, and increase our admiration. Sir Charles Bell, in the work from which we have quoted, has followed out this inquiry, as respects the human hand, in a very interesting manner; and we cannot better close this paper, than by extracting a few sentences from a

* Bell's Bridgewater Treatise, pp. 155-157.

passage where he opens up the principle on which he so successfully expatiates.

"Were I to indulge in the admiration naturally aris ing out of this subject, and point out the strength and freedom of motion in the upper extremity at the balland socket joint of the shoulder,—the firmness of the articulation of the elbow, and yet how admirably it is suited to the co-operation of the hands,-the fineness of the motion of the hand itself, divided among the joints of twenty-nine bones, it might be objected to with some show of reason, and it might be said,-The bones and the forms of the joints which you are admiring, are so far from being peculiarly suited to the hand of man, that they may be found in any vertebrated animal. But this would not abate our admiration; it would only induce us to take a more comprehensive view of nature, and remind us that our error was in looking at a part only, instead of embracing the whole system; where, by slight changes, and gradations hardly perceptible, the same bones are adjusted to every condition of animal existence.

"We recognise the bones which form the upper extremity of man, in the fin of a whale, in the paddle of the turtle, in the wing of the bird. We see the same bones, perfectly suited to their purpose, in the paw of the lion or the bear, and equally fitted for motion in the hoof of the horse, or in the foot of the camel, or adjusted for climbing or digging, in the long-clawed feet of the sloth or bear [beaver?]. * * * * *

"The wonder still is, that, whether we examine this system in man, or in any of the inferior species of animals, nothing can be more curiously adjusted or appropriated; and we should be inclined to say, whatever instance occupied our thoughts for the time, that to this particular object the system had been framed."

*Bell's Bridgewater Treatise, pp. 20-22.

FIRST WEEK-WEDNESDAY.

GLOBULAR FIGURE OF THE EARTH.

THE character which, in the two preceding papers, we stated as belonging to the works of God, consisting as it does, not in absolute perfection, but rather in contrivances and compensations to abate imperfection, runs through every thing in nature, and may be equally traced in the moral and physical worlds. It may be useful and interesting to examine this character in some of the great arrangements of external nature.

That the universe should be governed by general laws impressed on matter, is a providential arrangement, the consummate wisdom of which it requires no effort of reasoning to demonstrate; and that these laws should be fixed and undeviating, is a necessary consequence of their existence; for, were they to any great extent to yield to circumstances, they would cease to possess the character of principles, on the results of which it would be possible either to reason or to act,—that is, they would cease to be general laws. Now, one of these general laws, as simple in its nature, as it is universal in its operations, and amazing in its effects, is the principle of gravitation, of which it has been beautifully said,

"The very law which moulds a tear,

And makes it trickle from its source,

That law preserves the earth a sphere,

And guides the planets in their course."*

The globular figure of the earth, which is the result of this law, and which may easily be shown to possess many important advantages, presents this formidable difficulty, that the rays of the sun, issuing in parallel lines from that luminary, must fall directly upon that part of the terrestrial ball which is immediately opposed

* Rogers.