Birds (1), fome Part of thofe Tunicles have the Nature and Hardness of Bone or Horn.

But for Creatures, whofe Eyes, like the rest of their Body, are tender, and without the Guard of Bones; there Nature hath provided for this neceffary and tender Senfe, a wonderful kind of Guard, by endowing the Creature with a Faculty of with

Particulars I shall refer to the Anatomifts; and for fome of thefe Things, particularly to Dr. Willis's Cereb. Anat. and de Anim. Brut. and Mr. Cowper's Elegant Cuts in the 11th Tab. of his Anatomy.

To the Eye Lids we may add another Guard afforded the Eyes of moft Quadrupeds, Birds, and Fishes, by the nictitating Membrane, which Dr. Willis gives this Account of, Plurimis [Animalibus] quibus Mufculus fufpenforius adeft (which Limitation he needed not to have added) etiam_alter Membranofus conceditur, qui juxta interiorem oculi canthum fitus, quando elevatur, Oculi globum fere totum obtegit. Hujus ufus effe videtur, ut cùm Beftia inter gramina, &c. capita fua propter victum capeffendum demergunt, hic Mufculus Oculi Pupillam, ne à ftipularum incurfu feriatur, oculit, munitque. De Anim. Brut. p. 1. c. 15.

This Membrane Man hath not, he having little Occafion to thrust his Head into fuch Places of Annoyance, as Beafs and other Animals; or if he hath, he can defend his Eyes with his Hands. But Birds (who frequent Trees and Bushes) and Quadrupeds, (Hedges and long Grafs) and who have no part ready, like the Hand, to fence off Annoyances; thefe, I fay, have this incomparable Provifion made for the Safety of their Eyes. And for Fishes, as they are deftitute of EyeLids, becaufe in the Waters there is no occafion for a Defenfative against Duft and Motes, offenfive to the Eyes of Land Animals, nor to moisten and wipe the Eyes, as the Eye-Lids do, fo the Nictitating-Membrane is an abundant Provision for all their Occafions, without the Addition of the Eye-Lids.

And now, if we reflect, are these the Works of any Thing but a wife and indulgent Agent?

(I) Although the Hardnefs and Firmnefs of the Adnata, or Sclerotica in Birds, is a good Guard to their Eyes, yet I do not think it is made thus, fo much for a Defence, as to minifter to the lengthning and shortning the Eye, mentioned before in Note (cc)

drawing

drawing its Eyes into its Head (mm), and lodging them in the fame Safety with the Body.

Thus have I furvey'd this firft Senfe of Animals, I may fay in a curfory, not accurate, ftrict manner, confidering the prodigious Workmanship thereof; but fo, as abundantly to demonftrate it to be the Contrivance, the Work of no lefs a Being than the infinite Wife, Potent, and Indulgent Creator (nn). For none lefs could compofe fo admirable an Organ, fo adapt all its Parts, fo adjust it to all Occafions, fo nicely provide for every Ufe, and for every Emergency: In a word, none lefs than GoD, could, I fay, thus contrive, order, and provide an Organ, as magnificent and curious as the Senfe is useful; a Senfe without which, as all the Animal World would be in perpetual Darkness, so it would labour under perpetual Inconveniencies, be exposed to perpetual Harms, and fuffer perpetual Wants and 'Ditreffes. But now by this admirable Senfe, the great GOD, who hath placed us in this World, hath as well provided for our comfortable Refidence in it; enabled us to fee and chufe wholfome, yea delicate Food, to provide our felves useful, yea gaudy Cloathing, and commodious Places of Habitation and ReWe can now dispatch our Affairs with Ala

treat.

(mm) Cochleis oculorum vicem Cornicula bina pratentu implent. Plin. Nat. Hift. 1. 11. c. 37. See more of the Eyes of Snails before in Note (k); and in Note (1), I faid that I fufpected Moles alfo might thruft out, or withdraw their Eyes more or lefs within the Hair or Skin.

(nn) The diligent Sturmius was fully perfuaded there could not be any fpeculative Atheism in any one that fhould well furvey the Eye. Nobis, faith he, fuit perfuafiffimum, Atheifmum, quem vocant fpeculativum, h. e. obfirmatam de Deitate in Univerfo nullâ perfuafionem, habere locum aut inveniri non poffe in eo homine, qui vel unius corporis organici, Speciatim Oculi fabricam attento animo afpexerit. Sturm. Exerc. Acad. 9. De Vil. Organ, & Rat. in Epilogo.

crity and Pleasure, go here and there as our Occafions call us. We can, if need be, ranfack the whole Globe, penetrate into the Bowels of the Earth, defcend to the bottom of the Deep, travel to the fartheft Regions of this World, to acquire Wealth, to encrease our Knowledge, or even only to please our Eye and Fancy. We can now look about us, difcern and fhun the Precipices and Dangers which every where enclofe us, and would deftroy us. And thofe glorious Objects which fill the Heavens and the Earth, thofe admirable Works of God which every where furround us, and which would be as nothing to us, without being feen, do by means of this noble Sense present their Glories to us (00), and

(00) The glorious Landskips, and other Objects that prefent themselves to the Eye, are manifeftly painted on the Retina, and that not erect, but inverted as the Laws of Opticks require; and is manifeft to the Eye from Monfieur Cartes's Experiment, of laying bare the vitreous Humour on the back part of the Eye, and clapping over it a Bit of white Paper, or the Skin of an Egg; and then placing the fore-part of the Eye to the Hole of the Window of a darkned Room. By which means we have a pretty Landfkip of the Objects abroad invertedly painted on the Paper, on the back of the Eye. But now the Queftion is, How in this Cafe the Eye comes to fee the Objects erect? Monfieur Cartes's Anfwer is, Notitia illius ex nulla imagine pendet, nec ex ullâ actione ab objectis veniente, fed ex folo fitu exiguarum partium cerebri, è quibus Nervi expullulani. E. g. cogitandum in Oculo fitum capillamenti nervi optici refpondere ad alium quendam partis cerebri qui facit ut Anima fingula loca cognofcat, qua jacent in recta, aut quafi rettá linea; ut ita mirari non debeamus corpora in naturali fitu videri, quamvis imago in oculo delineata contrarium habeat. Dioptr. c. 6. our most ingenious Mr. Molyneux anfwereth thus, The Eye is only the Organ or Inftrument, 'tis the Soul that fees by means of the Eye. To enquire then how the Soul perceives the Object erect, by an inverted Image, is to enquire into the Soul's Faculties But erect and inverted are only Terms of Relation to up and down; or farther from, or nigher to the Center of the Earth, in Parts of the fame Thing.

But

But the

Eye,

fill us with Admiration and Pleafure.

But I need

not expatiate in the Usefulness and Praises of this Senfe, which we receive the Benefit of every Moment, and the want, or any defect of which, we lament among our greatest Misfortunes.

Leaving then this Senfe, I fhall proceed to the other four, but more briefly treat of them, by reafon we have fo ample a Sample of the divine Art in the laft, and may prefume that the fame is exerted in all as well as one. For a Demonftration of which, let us in the next Place carry our Scrutiny to the Sense of Hearing.

Eye, or vifive Faculty takes no notice of the internal Posture of its own Parts, but ufeth them as an Inftrument only, contrived by Nature for the Exercife of fuch a Faculty. Let us imagine, that the Eye (on its lower Part) receives an Impulse [by a Ray from the upper part of the Object] must not the vifive Faculty be neceffarily directed hereby to confider this Stroke, as coming from the top rather than the bottom [of the Object] and confequently be directed to conclude it the Representation of the top? Hereof we may be fatisfied, by fuppofing a Man Standing on his Head. For here, though the upper Parts of Objects are painted on the upper Parts of the Eye, yet the Objects are judged to be erect. What is faid of Erect and Reverse, may be understood of Sinifter and Dexter. Molyneux's Dioptr. Nov. Part I. Prop. 28.

CHAP.

CHA P. III.

Of the Senfe of Hearing.

Oncerning the Senfe of Hearing, I fhall take notice of two Things, the Organ, the Ear; and its Object, Sound.

I. For the Organ, the Ear; I fhall pass by its convenient Number of being double, which (as in the last Senfe) ferves for the commodious Hearing every way round us; as alfo a wife Provifion for the utter Lofs or Injury (a) of one of the Ears. But I fhall a little infift upon its Situation, and its admirable Fabrick and Parts.

1. It I.

(a) I prefume it will not be ungrateful to take notice here of the admirable, as well as useful Sagacity of fome deaf Perfons, that have learnt to fupply their want of Hearing by understanding what is faid by the Motion of the Lips. My very ingenious Friend Mr. Waller, R. S. Secr. gives this Account, There live now and have from their Birth, in our Town, a Man and his Sifter, each about fifty Years old, neither of which have the leaft Senfe of Hearing, yet both of these know, by the Motion of the Lips only, whatever is faid to them, and will answer pertinently to the Question propofed to them The Mother told me they could hear very well, and fpeak when they were Children, but both loft that Sense afterwards, which makes them retain their Speech; though that, to Perfons not used to them, is a little uncouth and odd, but intelligible enough. Phil. Tranf. No. 312.

Such another Inftance is that of Mr. Goddy, Minister of St. Gervais in Geneva, his Daughter. She is now about fixteen Years old. Her Nurse had an extraordinary Thickness of Hearing; at a Year old, the Child Spake all those little Words that Children begin to speak at that Age. At two Years old, they perceived he had loft her Hearing, and was fo Deaf, that ever Since, though he hears great Noifes, yet she hears nothing that one can speak to her.- But by obferving the Motions of the Mouth and Lips of others, he hath acquired fo many Words, that out of these she hath formed a sort of Fargon, in which