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Natural Tiieoloyy * No . IV . On the Eye . ( Continued from p . 162 . ) He that formed the eyey shall he not see 1 WE are now ,, as a conclusion to the present subject , to shew that the contrivances of nature , that
is of the Creator , with respect to the eye , surpass the contrivances of art , in the complexity , subtilty and curiosity of the mechanism ; nevertheless , they are mechanical contrivances / and as evidently accommodated to their end and suited to their office , as the
most perfect productions of human ingenuity * To prove this , Dr . Paley makes a comparison of an eye with a telescope , and shews that there is precisely the same proof that the eye was made for vision , as there is that the telescope was made for assisting it . We shall state his argument , ? ' The
eye and the telescope are made on the same principles ; both being adjusted to the laws by which the transmission and refraction of the rays of light are regulated . By the laws of optics , in order to produce the same effect , the rays of light , in passing from water into the eye , should be refracted by a more convex surface than when it
passes out of air into the eye . Now ' the crystalline lens of a fish ' s eye is much more convex than the eye of any terrestrial animal . What clearer manifestation of design can we ask than this distinction ? It must also
be observed , that notwithstanding the obvious difference between the eye in the living animal and the inanimate materials of which the telescope is made , they are both instruments . For , with respect to the eye , it is necessary , in order to produce clear and distinct vision , that an image or picture of the object should be formed
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at the bottom of the eye on the retina The formation of such an image being necessary to tfte sense of sight , and to the exercise of that sense , the apparatus by which it is formed is constructed and niit together , -nni ^ i . — — — — — — —— — — — — ¦* —¦ vs
- - j— ^^ — — - ^ ** v "III w with more art , but upon the very same principles of art as in the telescope . Hence the eye and telescope are instruments of the same kind ; the object of both is the same , and the means of effecting it the same . The
lenses of the telescope and the lmmou * s of the eye bear a complete resemblance to one another , in their figure , position and their power over the rays of light , viz . in bringing-each peneil of rays to a point at the right distance from the lens , which in the
eye is at the exact place where the membrane , that is , the retina , is spread to receive it . How then , under circumstances of such close affinity , can we exclude contrivance from the one , and admit it in the other ?
Again , in refracting telescopes , there is found an imperfection , which is , that pencils of light , in passing through glass lenses , are separated into different colours , thereby tinging the object , especially about the edges ,
as if it were viewed through a prism . For a long time it surpassed the art of the most discerning philosophers to correct this inconvenience j at length it came into the mind of an optician to inquire how this matter was managed in the eye , in which he was aware there was the same
difficulty to contend with as in the telescope . He soon saw by simple dissection that , in the eye , the evil was cured by combining substances wnicn possessed different powers of refraction j this being the case in the eye with regard to the aqueous and vitreous lens
aumours and ttie crystalline . i »^ artist borrowed from this the hint , and actually produced a correction of the defect complained of , by imitating in glasses made of materials differing in their proportions , the effects of the different humours of the eye through which the rays of light pass before they reach the bottom of it . Hence it is asked—Could that be in the « J * without design , which suggested to the optician the only effectual meam of attaining the same purpose ? But ttie superiority of the eye over the teleacope will be manifest "
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234 Natural Theology . No . IV . E —The ye .
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faith . I feel , I trust , as much as Scrutator , a desire that every distress should be relieved , but as , in these times , we peculiarly feel non ornnia possumus omnes , it is hardly correct to introduce the case of such as
never proved themselves , in a proper sense , Unitarian ministers , to interfere with the exertions of Unitarians to send forth those who shall go to and fro , to increase knowledge by declaring , so far as they understand it , the wkole counsel of God . BERETJS .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), April 2, 1815, page 234, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1759/page/34/
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