a different form, or placed in a different position; were even a single muscle to lose its capacity of acting, we might be for ever deprived of all the enchanting prospects of the earth and heavens, and enveloped in the darkness of eternal night. Such is the skill and intelligence requisite for accomplishing, even in a single organ, the purposes of Divine benevolence.

Again, Before we could enjoy the harmony of sounds, the charms of music, and the pleasures of conversation, an instrument no less wonderful than the eye required to be constructed. In the ear, which is the organ of hearing, it was requisite, that there should be an outward porch for collecting the vibrations of the air, constructed, not of fleshy substances, which might fall down upon the orifice, or absorb the sounds, nor of solid bones, which would occasion pain and inconvenience when we repose ourselves but composed of a cartilaginous substance, covered with a smooth membrane, endowed with elasticity, and bent into a variety of circular folds, or hollows, for the reflection of sound. It was farther requisite, that there should be a tube, or passage, composed partly of cartilage, and partly of bone, lined with a skin or membrane, and moistened with a glutinous matter, and to form a communication with the internal machinery of this organ, where the principal wonders of hearing are performed. This machinery consists, first, of the tympanum, or drum of the ear, which consists of a dry, thin, and round membrane, stretched upon a bony ring, so as actually to resemble the instrument we call a drum. Under this membrane is a small nerve, or string, stretched tight, for the purpose of stretching or relaxing the drum, and increasing or diminishing its vibrations, so as to render it capable of reflecting every possible tone. Behind it is a cavity, hewn out of the temporal bone, the hardest one in the body, in which there seems to be an echo, by which the sound is reflected with the utmost precision. This cavity contains four very small, but remarkable bones, denominated the hammer, the anvil, the orbicular bone, and the stirrup, all connected together, and necessary for contributing to the extension and vibration of the tympanum. In this cavity are also formed various windings or cavities filled with air; and, in order that the air may be re

newed, there is an opening which communicates with the back part of the mouth, called the Eustachian tube.

The next apparatus belonging to this curious machine, is the Labyrinth, which is composed of three parts, the vestibule or porch, three semicircular canals, and the cochlea. This last is a canal, which takes a spiral course, like the shell of a snail, and is divided by a very thin lamina, or septum of cords, which keeps decreasing from the base to the top. The air acting on either side of these diminutive cords, produces a motion, nearly in the same manner as the sound of one musical instrument excites a tremulous motion in the cords of another. All these tubes, and winding canals, may be considered as so many sounding galleries, for augmenting the smallest tremours, and conveying their impressions to the auditory nerves, which conduct them to the brain. Besides the several parts now mentioned, a number of arteries, veins, lymphatics, glands, and a variety of other contrivances, which the human mind can neither trace nor comprehend, are connected with the mechanism of this admirable organ.

All this curious and complicated apparatus, however, would have been of no avail for the purpose of hearing, had not the atmosphere been formed, and its particles endowed with a tremulous motion. But, this medium being prepared, a sounding body communicates an undulatory motion to the air, as a stone thrown into a pond produces circular waves in the water; the air, thus put in motion, shakes the drum of the ear; the tremours, thus excited, produce vibrations in the air within the drum; this air shakes the handle of the hammer; the hammer strikes the anvil, with which it is articulated; the anvil transmits the motion to the stirrup, to which its longer leg is fastened; the stirrup transmits the motion it has received, to the nerves; and the nerves, vibrating like the strings of a violin, or a lyre, and the motion being still farther augmented in the Labyrinth,-the soul, in a manner altogether incomprehensible to us, receives an impression proportioned to the weakness or intensity of the vibration produced by the sounding body. Such is the exquisite and complicated machinery which required to be constructed, and preserved in action every moment, before

we could enjoy the benefits of sound, and the pleasures of articulate conversation.

Again, Before we could enjoy the pleasures of feeling, an extensive system of organization required to be ar ranged. A system of nerves, originating in the brain and spinal marrow, and distributed, in numberless minute ramifications, through the heart, lungs, bowels, blood-vessels, hands, feet, and every other part of the body, was requisite to be interwoven through the whole constitution of the animal frame, before this sense, which is the foundation of all the other sensations, and the source of so many pleasures, could be produced. Wherever there are nerves, there are also sensations; and wherever any particular part of the body requires to exert a peculiar feeling, there the nerves are arranged and distributed in a peculiar manner, to produce the intended effect. And how nicely is every thing arranged and attempered, in this respect, to contribute to our comfort! If the points of the fingers require to be endowed with a more delicate sensation than several other parts, they are furnished with a corresponding number of nervous ramifications; if the heel require to be more callous, the nerves are more sparingly distributed. If feeling were equally distributed over the whole body, and as acutely sensible as in the membranes of the eye, our very clothes would become galling and insupportable, and we should be exposed to continual pain; and if every part were as insensible as the callous of the heel, the body would be benumbed, the pleasures we derive from this sense would be destroyed, and the other organs of sensation could not perform their functions in the manner in which they now operate. So that in this, as well as in all the other sensitive organs, infinite Wisdom is admirably displayed in executing the designs of Benevolence.

In order that we might derive enjoyment from the various aliments and delicious fruits which the earth produces, a peculiar organization, different from all the other senses, was requisite to be devised. Before we could relish the peculiar flavour of the pear, the apple, the peach, the plum, or the grape, the tongue, the principal organ of taste, required to be formed, and its surface covered with an infinite number of nervous papilla, curiously divari

cated over its surface, to receive and convey to the soul the impressions of every flavour. These nerves required to be guarded with a firm and proper tegument or covering, to defend them from danger, and enable them to perform their functions so long as life continues; and, at the same time, to be perforated in such a manner, with a multitude of pores, in the papillary eminences, as to give a free admission to every variety of taste. It was likewise necessary, that these papillary nerves should be distributed in the greatest number, in those parts of the organ to which the objects of taste are most frequently applied; and hence we find, that they are more numerous on the upper than on the lower parts of the tongue; and, therefore, when we apply highly-flavoured substances to the under part, we are not so sensible of the taste, till we remove them to the upper surface. A variety of veins, arteries, glands, tendons, and other parts with which we are unacquainted, are also connected with this useful organ. When we consider how frequently these delicate organs are used, during a length of years, it is matter of admiration how well they wear. While our clothes wear out in the course of a year or two, while the hairs of our heads turn gray, and are nipt asunder at the roots, and while age shrivels the most beautiful skin, these delicate nervous papillæ last longer than instruments of iron or steel; for the sense of taste is generally the last that decays. For the bestowment of this sense, therefore, and the pleasures it conveys, we have abundant reason to admire and adore the Wisdom and Goodness of our Almighty Crea

tor.

Finally, that we might be regaled with the scent of flowers, and the aromatic perfumes of spring and summer, and that none of the pleasures of nature might be lost, the organ of smelling was constructed to catch the invisi ble odoriferous effluvia which are continually wafted through the air. For this purpose it was requisite that bones, nerves, muscles, arteries, veins, cartilages, and membranes, peculiarly adapted to produce this effect, should be arranged, and placed in a certain part of the body. As the bones of the head are too hard for this purpose, the nerves of smelling required to have a bone of a peculiar texture, of a spongy nature, full of little

holes, like a sieve, through which they might transmit their slender threads or branches to the papillous membrane which lines the cavities of the bone and the top of the nostrils. The nostrils required to be cartilaginous and not fleshy, in order to be kept open, and to be furnished with appropriate muscles to dilate or contract them as the occasion might require. It was likewise requisite, that they should be wide at the bottom, to collect a large quantity of effluvia, and narrow at the top where the olfactory nerves are condensed, that the effluvia might act with the greatest vigour, and convey the sensation to the brain. By means of these and numerous other contrivances, connected with this organ, we are enabled to distinguish the qualities of our food, and to regale ourselves on those invisible effluvia which are incessantly flying off from the vegetable tribes, and wafted in every direction through the atmosphere.

Of all the senses with which we are furnished, the sense of smelling is that which we are apt to consider as of the least importance; and some have even been ready to imagine, that our enjoyments would scarcely have been diminished, although its organs had never existed. But, it is presumptuous in man to hazard such an opinion in reference to any of the beneficent designs of the Creator. We know not what relation the minutest operations, within us or around us, may bear to the whole economy of nature, or what disastrous effects might be produced, were a single pin of the machinery of our bodies broken or destroyed. The exhalations which are, at this moment, rising from a putrid marsh in the centre of New Holland, and hovering, in an invisible form, over that desolate region, may be forming those identical clouds which, the next month, shall water our fields and gardens, and draw forth from the flowers their aromatic perfumes. The sense of smelling may be essentially requisite to the perfection of several of the other senses; as we know that the sense of feeling is inseparably connected with the senses of seeing, hearing, and tasting.-Let us consider, for a moment, some of the agencies which require to be exerted when this sense is exercised and gratified. Before we could derive pleasure from the fragrance of a flower, it was requisite that a system of the finest tubes, filaments, and mem