use that he finds in a watch, this truth will go very far toward proving, if it is not entirely conclusive, that, in making it, the powers of life by which it grew were directed by an intelligent, reasoning master.  Under the guidance of Paley he takes an eye, which, although an optical, and not a mechanical instrument like the watch, is as well adapted to testify to design.  He sees, first, that the eye is transparent when every other part of the body is opaque.  Was this the result of a mere Epicurean or Lucretian “fortuitous concourse” of living “atoms”?  He is not yet certain it might not be so.  Next he sees that it is spherical, and that this convex form alone is capable of changing the direction of the light which proceeds from a distant body, and of collecting it so as to form a distinct image within its globe.  Next he sees at the exact place where this image must be formed a curtain of nerve-work, ready to receive and convey it, or excite from it, in its own mysterious way, an idea of it in the mind.  Last of all, he comes to the crystalline lens.  Now, he has before learned that without this lens an eye would by the aqueous and Vitreous humors alone form an image upon the retina, but this image would be indistinct from the light not being sufficiently refracted, and likewise from having a colored fringe round its edges.  This last effect is attributable to the refrangibility of light, that is, to some of the colors being more refracted than others.  He likewise knows that more than a hundred years ago Mr. Dollond having found out, after many experiments, that some kinds of glass have the power of dispersing light, for each degree of its refraction, much more than other kinds, and that on the discovery of this fact he contrived to make telescopes in which he passed the light through two object-glasses successively, one of which he made of crown and one of flint glass, so ground and adapted to each other that the greater dispersion produced by the substance of one should be corrected by the smaller dispersion of the other.  This contrivance corrected entirely the colored images which had rendered all previous telescopes very imperfect.  He finds in this invention all the elements of design, as it appeared in the thought and action of a human designer.  First, conjecture of certain laws or facts in optics.  Then, experiment proving these laws or facts.  Then, the contrivance and formation of an instrument by which those laws or facts must produce a certain sought result.

Thus enlightened, our skeptic turns to his crystalline lens to see if he can discover the work of a Dollond in this.  Here he finds that an eye, having a crystalline lens placed between the humors, not only refracts the light more than it would be refracted by the humors alone, but that, in this combination of humors and lens, the colors are as completely corrected as in the combination of Dollond’s telescope.  Can it be that there was no design, no designer, directing the powers of life in the formation of this wonderful organ?  Our skeptic is aware that, in the arts of man, great aid has been, sometimes, given by chance, that is, by the artist or workman observing some fortuitous combination, form, or action, around him.  He has heard it said that the chance arrangement of two pairs of spectacles, in the shop of a Dutch optician, gave the direction