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use is to sweep the eye , to spread it over with the lacrymal humour , to defend it from injuries , and partially to shut out the light . It lies folded up in the upper corner of the « . r * rpadv for use , and it consists of a
CVVy » " ^ J ' combination of two different kinds of substance , muscular and elastic : by the former it is capable of being " drawn out , and by the latter , as soon as the force is removed , it returns to its former position . Does not this bespeak an artist acquainted with his mater ials ? In some cases the muscle
is passed through a loop formed by another muscle , and is there influted as if it were carried round a pulley . The advantage of this peculiarity is this . A single muscle with a straight tendon , which is the common
muscular form , would have been sufficient , if it had possessed the power to draw far enough . But the contraction necessary to draw the membrane over the whole eye , required a longer
muscle than could lie straight at the bottom of the eye ; in order , therefore , to have a greater length in a less compass , the cord of the main muscle makesan angle round a loop formed by another muscle , which other muscle ,
whenever it contracts ,- twitches the first muscle at the point of inflection , and thereby assists the action designed by both . If a brutal master attempts to strike his horse over the eyes , the nictitating membranes instantly interpose themselves in defence of this
most delicate organ . It has been objected , " Why the Deity should not have given to the animal the faculty of vision at once ?" To this it is answered , that it is only ty the display of contrivance that the
existence , the agency , the wisdom of the Deity could be manifested to his Ra tional creatures . This is the scale ° y which we ascend to all the knowled ge of the Creator that we do possess , so far as it depends on the works <« nature . The general laws of matter may have these limits , and when pa rticular is to be
^ purpose effected , 1 is not by making a new law , nor £ y the suspension of the old ones , but y 1 foe interposition of an apparatus ^ responding with these laws , that God PUlpOS ? is at len ^ attained . aonL ?^* ** ^ observed , . pre-^ "oe limits to his power in order that ^ y exhibit demonstrations of his 52 } 5 at fetft the Bubject may weiy represented under this view ,
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because the Deity , acting by general laws , it will h ave the same co n sequences upon our reasoning as if he had prescribed these laws to another * If , then , there were no example in the world of contrivance , except
that of the eye , it-would , be sufficient to prove the necessity of an intelligent Creator . Its coats and humours , constructed like the lenses of a telescope for the refraction of rays of light , — its muscular tendons for turning the pupil to the object , simifar to that
which is given to the telescope by screws , —the provision made for its defence , lubricity and moisture , — . the glands for the secretion of the matter of tears , and the communication with
the nose for carrying off the liquid after the eye has been washed with it , are provisions which compose an apparatus so manifest in their design , so exquisite in their contrivance , so successful in their issue and so beneficial
in their use , as to bear down all doubt upon the subject . Thus have we cursorily surveyed the sense of seeing as belonging to animals , particularly to man , which has been denominated the first and most important of his senses . The short view which we have taken of
the subject , will , we trust , be abundantly sufficient to demonstrate that the organ , with all its various apparatus , must be the work of an intelligent and designing Being , who foresaw all the wants of his creatures , and provided for them in the amplest manner . This Being we call God , whom we conceive to be infinite in
his attributes , and whose existence is set forth and displayed through the whole of creation . We have heard of speculative atheists , but we may surely assume that such have never attended to the manifestation * of wisdom , of power and goodness
which are every where , and in every spot of the habitable globe , to be found ; even the structure of the eye itself , would , it is conceived , be sufficient to contradict the notions of chance to which unbelievers arc prone to cling : " I am thoroughly convinced , " says Sturm , " that what
is called speculative atheism , or a firm persuasion of the non-existence of a Deity , was never found in any man who had attentively considered the structure of any organized body , more especially that of the eye . ' To conclude , by this admirahfe
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Natural Theology . No . IV *—The Eye , 25 ?
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), April 2, 1815, page 237, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1759/page/37/
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