SECTION III. EVIDENCE FROM EXTERNAL NATURE. 1. In looking abroad upon the natural world with a careful eye, we cannot fail to discover certain arrangements and adaptations which give evidence of design. As one example, we might instance the well known fact, that all those animals which supply man with food, are found in greater abundance than those that are of a dangerous character. This certainly appears like a judicious arrangement; for, aside from this, no reason can be given why it should be so. If there be no adaptation here to the wants of the human race, why should cattle, sheep, and swine, be more numerous than lions, tigers, and leopards? Why should turkeys, geese, and ducks, be found congregated in such vast flocks, and this in every clime, while the condor is confined to a single region, and the eagle wings his solitary flight through space with no companion near? Why should cod-fish, and mackerel, and herring, be scattered in countless multitudes all along the shores of the great deep, while swordfish, sharks, &c., compared with these, are strangers in the sea? Does not this abundance of the useful on the one hand, and the scarcity of the hurtful on the other, clearly point out an intelligent and benevolent arrangement? 2. If we go to the deserts of Africa, we shall meet with an individual adaptation in the animal kingdom which is worthy of all attention. We refer to the camel, or, as it has been poetically called, "the ship of the desert." Can anything be offered to show why this animal should be found in these barren wastes, and only here? Can any satisfactory explanation be given of its perfect fitness for the performance of long and painful journeys over these sandy regions, unless we refer the whole to a Wisdom always regulating things according to the circumstances of the human family?* Here are oceans of burning deserts -without assistance man could not traverse them-he is therefore provided with a ship, in the shape of the camel, most happily adapted in every way to his wants. With this he plunges fearlessly into the sandy deep, and, though surrounded with danger and peril, makes his way safely to the place of his destination. If there be not design here, we know not what to call this arrangement. 3. From the scorched deserts of the equator, we will turn to the frozen regions of the north, and we shall find there another beautiful adaptation among animals to the necessities of man. What can evince this more strikingly "Nature," says Mr. Volney, "has given a small head without ears, at the end of a long neck without flesh. She has taken from its legs and thighs every muscle not immediately requisite for motion; and, in short has bestowed on its withered body only the vessels and tendons necessary to connect its frame together. She has furnished it with a strong jaw, that it may grind the hardest aliments; and lest it should consume too much, she has straitened its stomach, and obliged it to chew the cud." And is there no design here? Mr. Volney may call this admirable adaptation of the camel to its situation and to the wants of the Arab, nature, or by any other name he pleases; the name will not alter the thing; it is still Intelligence, as his own words most clearly show, and this Intelligence is our God. We do verily think if ever a man bore witness against himself, Mr. Volney has done it here. than the manner in which the rein-deer is made to answer the wants, wishes, and pleasures of the Laplander? A clearer case of proof in this department cannot be imagined. It seems as if this animal were made expressly to serve the inhabitants of the inhospitable clime where he is found. He requires but little food, subsisting upon shrubs, leaves, and moss, and yet, with this poor fare, will carry his master over the ice-bound plains, at the rate of sixty and even an hundred miles a day. From the milk the Laplander furnishes himself with cheese; the flesh is the main article of food, as is the skin of clothing; the tendons are made into bow-strings, and when split they supply the place of thread for sewing the skins; from the horrs is obtained a glue; and the bones are converted into spoons. Is not the rein-deer precisely the animal the Laplander needed? Could a better one have been given him? And is there no design, no adaptation in the perfect manner in which all these various and multiplied wants are met? If there be no evidence of this, then are we wholly ignorant of what constitutes evidence. 4. The planetary system affords another unquestionable proof of design, aud clearly exhibits the arrangement of Intelligence. The sun placed in the center, and the regular revolution of the planets around it, and on their axes at the same time, is nothing less than the result of a wise economy. If not, how happened it that the sun should have been fixed in the center? or, if this were the necessary consequence of the laws of matter, why should it also have been a luminous body, giving out light and heat to the rest of the system? Why should not the earth, or Jupiter, or Herschel, have been the repositories of light and heat? Plainly because this would not have answered the purpose; yet, if there be no design here, not the shadow of a reason can be offered why the sun should differ in these respects from the other bodies.* We wish that the sceptic would candidly ask himself if this is probably mere accident, and if so, whether he does not think it a most fortunate one? And what explanation can be given of the revolution of the planets upon their axes, except it be intention? Why should the earth, we ask, while going round the sun, whirl round upon itself every twenty-four hours? Would it have been any inconvenience to man if it had not? Would it have made any difference in his condition if there had been no alternation of day and night? We know not how one can resist the evidence of Intelligence in this happy and benevolent disposition of things. 5. If we take a glance at the structure of the solar system, as a whole, we cannot fail to be struck with its wonderful harmony. The motions of the planets all in one direction, and, with little variation, in the same plane; the motions of the secondaries in the same direction with the primaries; their revolutions upon their axes in the same direction also-what can be clearer evidence of intention? If chance gave the planets their motion,why should they not have moved in every direction, to the north and south, and east, and west, and at all possible angles? Would chance have thrown them all in one direction, and in the same plane? and would it have done the same to the satellites? It seems to us that this fact of uniform direction in the planetary motion, is one of the strongest possible proofs of a "How matter," says *The immortal Newton saw design here. he, "should divide itself into two sorts; and that part of it which is fit to compose a shining body should fall down into one mass, and make a sun; and the rest, which is fit to compose an opaque body, should coalesce, not into one great body, like the shining matter, but into many little ones-I do not think explicable by mere natural causes, but am forced to ascribe it to the counsel and contrivance of a voluntary Agent." First letter to Bentley, cited by Whewell. Ruling Intelligence. Add to this, their forms, their orbits, the inclination of the axis, their distances, and the mutually controlling forces by which they are regulated, and we cannot but see the propriety and truth of that beautiful saying of the ancients,—“ God works by geometry.” 6. Let us take the atmosphere in its relation to animals and plants, as another example. It is well known that atmospheric air is composed of two supposed elementary principles, or gasses, oxygen and nitrogen, or azote. Of these oxygen is the great vital principle, indispensable to the support of animal life. On the other hand, there is a gas called carbonic acid gas, which, if breathed in an unmixed state, is destructive of animal life; while it is at the same time one of the chief sources of vegetable life, without which every plant, from the giant oak to the humble violet, would inevitably perish. In connection with these facts, it is to be observed that, in breathing, atmospheric air is drawn in through the lungs, and decomposed. The oxygen is partly retained, and, by some unknown process, there is generated this carbonic acid gas, which is given out at every expiration. 7. Here, then, we are met with a difficulty, and, if there were no redeeming provision, certain death to the whole animal creation. How is it, if at every breath we extract the oxygen from the air, and give out the life destroying principle of carbon-how is it that the whole atmosphere has not long ago been converted into an ocean of carbonic acid gas? In the answer to this is seen one of the most beautiful harmonies of the universe, and one of the most indubitable proofs of a wise and beneficent design. 8. We have already stated that this gas is one of the principal sources of life to plants. These, therefore, drink it up in the same manner that the human system takes in the oxygen; and thus, what we throw off, and what, if not disposed of in some way, would be our death, is carefully |