The Works...: With a Biographical Sketch of the Author, Volume 4G. Cowie and Company, 1837 |
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action adapted admissible laws amongst animal answer appears argument arteries birds blood body bones brane called cartilage cause cavity centre CHAP church chyle consequence considerable constitution contrivance Creator degree Deity direction distinct drupeds earth effect existence experience faculties farther feather fibres fish fluid gastric juice gizzard hath hinge-joint human insects instance instruments intelligence intestines joints lacteals law of attraction laws less ligament light limbs lungs means mechanism membrane mesentery mind motion mouth mucilage muscles muscular NATURAL THEOLOGY nature necessary object observed operation organ oviparous particular perceive perhaps plants pleasure principle proboscis produced properties purpose quadrupeds reason relation respect seed sense shell side species spissitude stomach structure substance sufficient superfecundity suppose surface teeth tendons terrestrial animals thing tion ture variety vertebræ wanted watch whilst whole wings
Popular passages
Page 307 - Evil, no doubt, exists; but is never, that we can perceive, the object of contrivance. Teeth are contrived to eat, not to ache; their aching now and then is incidental to the contrivance, perhaps inseparable from it; or even, if you will, let it be called a defect in the contrivance; but it is not the object of it.
Page 354 - I say, that if one train of thinking be more desirable than another, it is that which regards the phenomena of nature with a constant reference to a supreme intelligent Author.
Page 307 - Here, pain and misery are the very objects of the contrivance. Now, nothing of this sort is to be found in the works of nature. We never discover a train of contrivance to bring about an evil purpose. No anatomist ever discovered a system of organization calculated to produce pain and disease; or, in explaining the parts of the human body, ever said : This is to irritate, this to inflame...
Page 375 - ... receive the sacrament of the Lord's supper, according to the usage of the Church of England...
Page 5 - A law presupposes an agent, for it is only the mode according to which an agent proceeds ; it implies a power, for it is the order according to which that power acts. Without this agent, without this power, which are both distinct from itself, the " law
Page 302 - The vigour of youth was to be stimulated to action by impatience of rest ; whilst to the imbecility of age, quietness and repose become positive gratifications. In one important respect the advantage is with the old. A state of ease is, generally speaking, more attainable than a state of pleasure. A constitution, therefore, which can enjoy ease, is preferable to that which can taste only pleasure. This same perception of ease oftentimes renders old age a condition of great comfort ; especially when...
Page 92 - ... employed every time we breathe ; yet we take in, or let out, our breath, without reflecting what a work is thereby performed ; what an apparatus is laid in, of instruments for the service, and how many such contribute their assistance to the effect. Breathing with ease, is a blessing of every moment ; yet, of all others, it is that which we possess with the least consciousness. A man in an asthma is the only man who knows how to estimate it.
Page 102 - Consider what an affair this is, when we come to very large animals. The aorta of a whale is larger in the bore than the main pipe of the waterworks at London bridge; and the water roaring in its passage through that pipe is inferior, in impetus and velocity, to the blood gushing from the whale's heart.
Page 268 - ... to deny a personal agent. Now that which can contrive, which can design, must be a person. These capacities constitute personality, for they imply consciousness and thought. They require that which can perceive an end or purpose ; as well as the power of providing means, and of directing them to their end*.