No. 542, Friday, Nov. 21, 1712. see one half of my Conduct patronized by each side, Were I serious on an improper Subject, or trifling in a serious one, I should deservedly draw upon me the Cen sure of my Readers; or were I conscious of any thing in my Writings that is not innocent at least, or that the greatest part of them were not sincerely designed to dis countenance Vice and Ignorance, and support the Interest of true Wisdom and Virtue, I should be more severe upon my self than the Publick is disposed to be. In the mean while I desire my Reader to consider every particular Paper or Discourse as a distinct Tract by it self, and inde pendant of every thing that goes before or after it. I shall end this Paper with the following Letter, which was really sent me, as some others have been which I have published, and for which I must own my self indebted to their respective Writers, • Sir, I was this Morning in a Company of your Wellwishers, when we read over, with great Satisfaction, Tully's Observations on Action adapted to the British Theatre: Though, by the way, we were very sorry to find that you have disposed of another Member of your Club, Poor Sir Roger is dead, and the worthy Clergyman dying. Captain Sentry has taken Possession of a fair Estate, Will Honeycomb has married a Farmer's Daughter, and the Templar withdraws himself into the Business of his own Profession. What will all this end in! We are afraid it portends no good to the Publick. Unless you very speedily fix a Day for the Election of new Members, we are under Apprehensions of losing the British Spectator. I hear of a Party of Ladies who intend to address you on this Subject, and question not, if you do not give us the Slip very suddenly, that you will receive Addresses from all Parts of the Kingdom to continue so useful a Work. Pray deliver us out of this Perplexity, and among the Multitude of your Readers you will particularly oblige, Your most Sincere Friend Philo-Spec.' Saturday No. 543, Saturday, November 22, -Facies non omnibus una Nec diversa tamen-- -Ov, HOSE who were skillful in Anatomy among the Τ Ancients, concluded from the outward and inward Make of an Human Body, that it was the Work of a Being transcendently Wise and Powerful. As the World grew more enlightened in this Art, their Discoveries gave them fresh Opportunities of admiring the Conduct of Provi dence in the Formation of an Human Body, Galen was converted by his Dissections, and could not but own a Supreme Being upon a Survey of this his Handywork. There were, indeed, many Parts of which the old Anatomists did not know the certain Use, but as they saw that most of those which they examined were adapted with admirable Art to their several Functions, they did not question but those, whose Uses they could not deter mine, were contrived with the same Wisdom for respective Ends and Purposes. Since the Circulation of the Blood has been found out, and many other great Discoveries have been made by our Modern Anatomists, we see new Wonders in the Human Frame, and discern several im portant Uses for those Parts, which Uses the Ancients knew nothing of In short, the Body of Man is such a Subject as stands the utmost Test of Examination. Tho' it appears formed with the nicest Wisdom upon the most superficial Survey of it, it still mends upon the Search, and produces our Surprize and Amazement in Proportion as we pry into it. What I have here said of an Human Body, may be applied to the body of every Animal which has been the Subject of Anatomical Observations, The Body of an Animal is an Object adequate to our Senses, It is a particular System of Providence, that lies in a narrow Compass. The Eye is able to command it, and by successive Enquiries can search into all its Parts. Could the body of the whole Earth, or indeed the whole Universe, be thus submitted to the Examination of our Senses, were it not too big and disproportioned for our Enquiries, too unwieldy for the Management of the Eye and No. 543, 1712. 1712. No. 543. and Hand, there is no Question but it would appear to us Saturday, as curious and well-contrived a Frame as that of an Nov. 22, Human Body. We should see the same Concatenation and Subserviency, the same Necessity and Usefulness, the same Beauty and Harmony in all and every of its Parts, as what we discover in the Body of every single Animal. The more extended our Reason is, and the more able to grapple with immense Objects, the greater still are those Discoveries which it makes of Wisdom and Providence in the Work of the Creation. As Sir Isaac Newton, who stands up as the Miracle of the present Age, can look through a whole Planetary System; consider it in its Weight, Number, and Measure; and draw from it as many Demonstrations of infinite Power and Wisdom, as a more confined Understanding is able to deduce from the System of an Human Body, But to return to our Speculations on Anatomy, I shall here consider the Fabrick and Texture of the Bodies of Animals in one Particular View, which, in my Opinion, shews the Hand of a thinking and all-wise Being in their Formation, with the Evidence of a thousand Demonstra tions. I think we may lay this down as an incontested Principle, that Chance never acts in a perpetual Uniformity and Consistence with it self. If one should always fling the same Number with ten thousand Dice, or see every Throw just five times less, or five times more in Number, than the Throw which immediately preceded it, who would not imagine there is some invisible Power which directs the Cast? This is the Proceeding which we find in the Operations of Nature. Every kind of Animal is diversifyed by different Magnitudes, each of which gives Rise to a different Species. Let a Man trace the Dog or Lion Kind, and he will observe how many of the Works of Nature are published, if I may use the Expression, in a variety of Editions. If we look into the Reptile World, or into those different Kinds of Animals that fill the Element of Water, we meet with the same Repetitions among several Species, that differ very little from one another, but in Size and Bulk. You find the same Creature, that is drawn at large, copied out in several Proportions, and ending in Miniature. It would be tedious to produce Instances 1712. Instances of this regular Conduct in Providence, as it would No. 543, be superfluous to those who are versed in the Natural Saturday, History of Animals. The Magnificent Harmony of the Nov, 22, Universe is such, that we may observe innumerable Divisions running upon the same Ground. I might also extend this Speculation to the dead Parts of Nature, in which we may find Matter disposed into many similar Systems, as well in our Survey of Stars and Planets, as of Stones, Vegetables, and other sublunary Parts of the Crea tion, In a Word, Providence has shewn the Richness of its Goodness and Wisdom, not only in the Production of many Original Species, but in the Multiplicity of Descants which it has made on every Original Species in particular, But to pursue this Thought still farther: Every living Creature, considered in it self, has many very complicated Parts that are exact Copies of some other Parts which it possesses, and which are complicated in the same manner, One Eye would have been sufficient for the Subsistence and Preservation of an Animal; but, in order to better his Condition, we see another placed with a Mathematical Exactness in the same most advantageous Situation, and in every Particular of the same Size and Texture. Is it possible for Chance to be thus delicate and uniform in her Operations? Should a Million of Dice turn up twice together the same Number, the Wonder would be nothing in Comparison with this. But when we see this Similitude and Resemblance in the Arm, the Hand, the Fingers; when we see one half of the Body entirely correspond with the other in all those minute Strokes, without which a Man might have very well subsisted; nay, when we often see a single Part repeated an hundred times in the same Body, not withstanding it consists of the most intricate weaving of numberless Fibres, and these Parts differing still in Magnitude, as the Convenience of their particular Situation requires, sure a Man must have a strange Cast of Understanding, who does not discover the Finger of God in so wonderful a Work. These Duplicates in those Parts of the Body, without which a Man might have very well subsisted, tho' not so well with them, are a plain Demonstration of an all-wise Contriver; as those 1712. No. 543. those more numerous Copyings, which are found among Saturday, the Vessels of the same Body, are evident Demonstrations Nov. 22, that they could not be the Work of Chance. This Argu ment receives additional Strength, if we apply it to every Animal and Insect, within our Knowledge, as well as to those numberless living Creatures that are Objects too minute for an Human Eye; and if we consider how the several Species in this whole World of Life resemble one another in very many Particulars, so far as is con venient for their respective States of Existence. It is much more probable that an hundred Million of Dice should be casually thrown an hundred Million of Times in the same Number, than that the Body of any single Animal should be produced by the fortuitous Concourse of Matter. And that the like Chance should arise in innumerable Instances, requires a Degree of Credulity that is not under the direction of Common-Sense, We may carry this Consideration yet further, if we reflect on the two Sexes in every living Species, with their Resemblances to each other, and those particular Dis tinctions that were necessary for the keeping up of this great World of Life. There are many more Demonstrations of a Supreme Being, and of his transcendent Wisdom, Power and Good ness in the Formation of the Body of a living Creature, for which I refer my Reader to other Writings, particularly to the Sixth Book of the Poem Entitled Creation, where the Anatomy of the human Body is described with Great Perspicuity and Elegance. I have been particular on the Thought which runs through this Speculation, because ecause I have not seen it enlarged upon by others. O Monday |
