PALEY'S NATURAL THEOLOGY ILLUSTRATED BY BROUGHAM AND BELL.
As an ethical and political philosopher, PALEY must perhaps be abandoned to those who impugn the soundness of his Ibundations and the purity or moral correctness of many of his particular laws. As a Christian phifosopher, his accommodating compliances, both in general theory and personal conduct, smack of any thing save the unworldly religion of the Gospel. But as a popular ex- pounder of abstruse or recondite ideas, as well as for skill in all the arts of advocacy, lie is without a rival ; and of all his works, the Natural Theology is the most successful. Other writers may pos- sess a profounder knowledge of the secrets of nature, and unfeld them with a more brilliant or more powerful eloquence : yet these qualities, however admirable, must sield, in their effect upon the reader, to the pellucid clearness with which PALEY conveys his ideas, the exquisite neatness with which he expresses them, and the almost careless homeliness with which he treats his subject, as if its truth was so convincing in itself that it could safely dis- regard both art and ornament, and merely required exposition. PALEY, however, as we before observed, possesses a superiority over his rivals in the adaptation of his mind to his subject—in the strictness with which he confines himself to his " great argument," and the selfecontrolling skill by which all temptation to display is rejected. Many divines, indeed, have the powers of limiting them- selves to the character of the Godhead as displayed in his works, (though their natural dulness neutralizes the effects of their arti- ficial training,) but the more popular expounders of nature seem to forget the Creator in his creation, and are more intent upon showing the wonderful emanations of the Deity than inferring his existence. But proof is never lost sight of by PALEY. The object of his work is ever present to his mind; and every paragraph, whilst it proves contrivance, carries the mind to the contriver.
Nor, if the Theology be closely examined, will its plan be found less admirable; commencing as it does with a skilful though a specious presentation of the subject proposed ; then, having pre- pared the mind of the reader, descending to the single illustra- tions; proceeding thence to larger or more complex instances; and thence rising, from vegetable and animal structures to the oonsideration of the uses and action of' the elements, the laws of astronomy, and the natural attributes of the Deity, he finally re- curs to the whole extent of animated existence, and deduces the goodness of the Deity from the proofs of benevolence he draws from the preponderance of happiness which he sees in the world.
But to come to the additional matter of the present edition; which may be divided into three classes,—notes corrective, notes explanatoly, and notes illustrative. As the original work dealt chiefly with facts, and those of the plainest, the best-established, and the most striking kind, there was not much chance of consi- derable error in the instances selected ; and upon their theological application, and the inferences to be drawn from them, we suspect that neither the training of Lord BROUGHAM nor of Sir CHARLES BELL has been exactly of the kind to enable them to correct PALEY with advantage. It follows that the notes of the two first class are not numerous, or very important. Such as they are, however, they are generally useful ; and are distinguished by a better spirit than was displayed in the remarks upon PALEY in the Introductory Discourse, exhibiting more fairness and respect, and less of a disposition to cavil. When venturing upon very subtile points, however, they show a want of that nice perception and vigorous reasoning which the subject demands. Speaking of the opening instance of PALEY, " how the stone came to be upon the heath," it is remarked, that the extensive study of geology would now prevent any reader from supposing that the stone was formed where it lay. " On lifting it, be would find it rounded like gravel in a river : he .would see that its asperities had been worn off by being rolled from a distance in water : he would per- haps break it, look at its fracture, and survey the surrounding heights to discover whence it had been broken off, or from what remote region it had been swept hither: he would consider the place where he stood in reference to the level of the sea or the waters : and, revolving all these things in his mind, he would be impressed with the conviction that the surface of the earth had undergone some vast revolution." Granting that a common reader would be learned and skilful enough to do all this, it little affects PALEY'S choice-of example; which was to show, that the nature of the stone exhibiting no signs of contrivance, might " for any thing we knew to the contrary," have existed for ever. The illustrative notes, especially those by Sir CHARLES BELL in the appendix, are always learned and curious, often interesting and valuable, but 'more so in themselves, perhaps, than as illus- trations of the original. They sometimes have no relation to natural theology,—as in the acute and suggestive Essay on "Life." In other cases, they carry out or add to the original arguments, rather than render them clearer; although, of course, many instances of design are discovered, and we may add, ably enforced, in the discussion of subjects so favourable to it as the anatomical construction of the human frame, and its more important parts— the head, the spine, the chest, the ear—as well as many points of comparative anatomy. In short, although we cannot say that the science of natural theology has been much advanced by the present publication, it may be asserted with truth, that this is the best edition of PALEY'S Natural Theology that has appeared ; independent of the elegance of the getting up, and the number of the wood-cuts illustrating both text and notes. The justice of the latter praise can only be known by ocular inspection: of the former, we will give a few samples—not the best that could be found, but the best adapted to our space.
ADJUSTMENT Or STRUCTURE TO THE CREATURE'S CONDITION.
In viewing the structure of the eye, as adjusted to the condition of fishes, we may remark the peculiar thickness of the sclerotic coat in tile whale. Although he breathes the atmosphere, and lies out on the surface of the water, to escape his enemies he will plunge some hundred fathoms deep. The pressure there- in* must be very great upon his surface, sad on the surface of the eye. If a cork be knocked into the mouth of a bottle, so that it reoists all further pressure that we can make upon it, and if this bottle be carried, by being attached to the sounding-lead, to a great depth in the sea, the pressure of the water will force in the cork and fill the bottle; for the cork is premed with a force equal to the weight of the column of water above it, of which it is the base. It is pressed in all directions equally, so that a common-sized cork is reduced to the size of that of a phial bottle. A creature, living at the depth of 100 feet, would sustain apressure, includ- ing that of the atmosphere, of about 60 pounds on the square inch ; white one at 4000 feet, a depth by no means considerable, would be exposed to a pressure of about 1830 pounds upon the square inch. We can therefore comprehend how it shall happen, that on the foundering of a ship at sea, though its timbers part, not a spar floats to the surface—every thing is swallowed up; for, if the hull has sur.k to a great depth, all that is porous is penetrated with water, or compressed, and consequently 'miming where it sunk. So it happened, and the fact goes directly to our purpose, that when, by the entangling of the line of the harpoon, the boat was carried down with the whale, and, being recovered, it required two boats to keep it at the surface.
We may easily conceive, therefore, flue pressure which the eye of the whale sustains when it dives, and why it is formed with the provisions which we are about to describe. When we make a section of the whole eye, cutting through the cornea, the sclerotic coat, which is dense as tanned leather, increases in thick- ness Cowards the back part, and is full five times the thidkness behind that it is at the anterior part. The anterior part of the eye sustains the pressure from without, and requires no additional support ; but were the back part to yield, the globe would be then distended in that direction, and the whole in- terior of the eve consequently suffer derangement. We perceive, therefore, the necessity of the coats being thus so remarkably strengthened behind. The natural enemies of the whale are the sword-fish and the shark ; and it is stated, with some show of reason, that this huge creature, being without means of de- fence of any kind, carries his enemies that have fixed upon him to a depth of water, and consequently to a pressure which subdues them, as their bodies ate not coustituted for such depths. It is under this instinct that, when the whale receives the harpoon, he dives to the bottom.
Here is a corrective note on the
REAL COMPLEXITY OF THE TONGUE.
When our author describes the variety of functions performed by the mouth and tongue, he is in admiration at the simplicity of the instrument. But this is only an apparent simplicity: the complexity of structure is concealed. In- deed, it has been this very consideration which led to the new investigations into the nervous system. Without entering far into this subject, we take the tongue in illustration. It a fine organ of touch it is the seat of the sense of taste it is necessary to deglutition : its modulations are infinite in speech; but the reason of a body FO simple in its outward form being capable of per- forming offices apparently so discordant, is visible only to the anatomist, who traces the nerves into this organ. Then he discovers, besides the nerve pro- ceeding from the papillae of the tongue to the sensor him, that there are nerves of volition governing the muscles of the tongue. In addition to these, there is a nerve which regulates the the action of swallowing, and which combines the motions of the gullet with those of the tongue; and in the same manner another nerve, tending to the organ of voice in the larynx, branches off to the tongue, and associates it with the organ of the voice, so as to produce arti- culate language : these nervous cords are the true organization by which one member, simple in its exterior form, has a complexity in its internal relations. And thus it is, that in many instances organs which are apparently simple, and through which we perform many offices so easily that we think not all of what is necessary to their execution, have yet internally, and to the eye of the ana- tomist, a thousand minute circumstances or relations on which the peifection of their action depends.
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