use to which 't is most fit 'T is not to be deny'd that he may have more uses for it than one and perhaps such uses as we cannot divine but this hinders not but that among its several uses this to which we see it so admirably adapted should be thought one And I see not how it does magnifie Gods wisdom or express our Veneration of it to exclude out of the number of his Ends in framing Human Eyes that most obvious and ready use which we are sure is made of them and which they could not be better fitted for This may perhaps be not unfitly illustrated by the following Comparison whereof the application were superfluous Suppose that a Country Man being in a clear day brought into the Garden of some famous Mathematician should see there one of those curious Gnomonick Instruments that show at once the place of the Sun in the Zodiack his Declination from the Aequator the Day of the Month the Length of the Day c. It would indeed be presumption in him being unacquainted both with the Mathematical Disciplines and the several Intentions of the Artist to pretend or think himself able to discover all the Ends for which so Curious and Elaborate a Piece was framed But when he sees it furnished with a Stile with Horary Lines and Numbers and in short with all the Requisites of a Sun Dial and manifestly perceives the Shadow to mark from time time the Hour of the Day 't would be no more a Presumption than an Error in him to conclude that whatever other Uses the Instrument is fit or was design'd for it is a Sun Dial that was meant to shew the Hour of the Day And here I shall demand of those that will not allow us to think that any Natural Things are directed to Ends knowable by Men whether if the Divine Author of them had really design'd them for such Ends the things themselves are not so Fram'd and directed as in that case they should be And whether the Fabrick and Management of Natural Things do really countenance or contradict our Supposition For my part after what has been already discours'd I scruple not to confess that I see not why it should be reputed a Disparagement to the Wisdom of any Agent whatsoever to think that his Productions were design'd for such Ends among others as they are excellently fram'd and fitted for unless it did appear that those Ends were unworthy to be Design'd by the Wise Agent But that cannot be justly said in our present Case since 't is not injurious to the Divine Author of things to believe that some of the Ends to which he destinated divers of his Corporeal Works were To exert and communicate His Exuberant Goodness and to receive from his intelligent Creatures such as Men an ardent Love a high Admiration and an obsequious Gratitude for having display'd so much Wisdom and Beneficence in exquisitly qualifying his Works to be wonderfully serviceable to one another and a great number of them to be particularly subservient to the Necessities and Utilities of Man. And indeed I can by no means assent to that Assertion of Mr. Des-Cartes That it cannot be said Nec fingi potest aliquos Dei Fines magis quà m alios in propatulo esse omnes enim in imperscrutabili éjus sapientiae Abysso sunt eodem modo reconditi Resp Quart. ad Object Gassendi that some of Gods Ends in his Corporeal Works are more manifest than others but that all of them lie equally hid in the Abyss of the Divine Wisdom since there are many of his Creatures some of whose Uses are so manifest and obvious that the generality of Mankind both Philosophers and Plebeians have in all Ages and almost in all Countries taken Notice of and Acknowledg'd them And as to what he adds by which he seems to intimate the motive that led him to make the foremention'd Assertion That in Physicks all things ought to be made out by certain and solid Reasons to this I answer First That I see not why the admitting that the Author of Things design'd some of his Works for these or those Uses amongst others may not consist with the Physical Accounts of making of those things as a Man may give a Mechanical Reason of the Structure of every Wheel and other part of a Watch and of their way of acting upon one another when they are rightly put together and in short of the Contrivance and Phoenomena of the little Machine tho' he suppose that the Artificer design'd it to show the hours of the day and tho' he have that intended use in his Eye whilst he Explicates the Fabrick and Operations of the Watch. I answer Secondly That I readily admit that in Physicks we should indeed ground all things upon as solid Reasons as may be had But I see no necessity that those Reasons should be always precisely Physical Especially if we be treating not of any particular Phaenomenon that is produc'd according to the course of Nature establish'd in the World already constituted as this of ours is but of the first and general Causes of the World it self from which Causes I see not why the Final Causes or Uses that appear manifestly enough to have been design'd should be excluded And to me 't is not very material whether or no in Physicks or any other Discipline a thing be prov'd by the peculiar Principles of that Science or Discipline provided it be firmly proved by the common grounds of Reason And on this occasion let me observe that the Fundamental Tenents of Mr. Des-Cartes's own Philosophy are not by himself prov'd by Arguments strictly Physical but either by Metaphysical ones or the more Catholick Dictates of Reason or the particular testimonies of Experience For when for instance he truly ascribes to God all the Motion that is found in Matter and consequently all the variety of Phoenomenae that occur in the World he proves not by an Argument precisely Physical that God who is an Immaterial Agent is the efficient cause of Motion in Matter but only by this That since Motion does not belong to the Essence and nature of Matter Matter must owe the Motion it has to some other Being And then 't is most agreeable to common Reason to infer that since Matter cannot move it self but it must be mov'd by some other Being that Being must be Immaterial since otherwise some Matter must be able to move it self contrary to the Hypothesis And when Des-Cartes goes to demonstrate that there is always in the Universe the self-same quantity of Motion that is just as much at any one time as at any other and consequently that as much motion as one Body communicates to another it looses it self he proves it by the Immutability of God which is not a Physical Argument strictly so call'd but rather a Metaphysical One as he formerly prov'd God's being the Cause of all Motion in Matter not by Principles peculiar to
Causes which I hope will not prove altogether useless being premis'd I shall begin my intended Discourse by owning a dissent from both the opposite Opinions Theirs that with the vulgar of Learned Men will take no notice of Final Causes but those we have stiled Human ones and theirs that as they think with Descartes reject Final Causes altogether since tho' I judge it erroneous to say in the strictest sense that every thing in the Visible World was made for the Use of Man yet I think 't is more erroneous to deny that any thing was made for ends Investigable by Man. 'T is a known Principle of the Cartesian Philosophy That there is always just the same quantity of Motion in the World at one time that there is at another Of which Assertion this Reason is given That there is no Cause why God who is Immutable should at the beginning of things when he first put Matter into Motion have given it such a quantity of Motion as would need to be afterwards augumented or lessen'd But I see not how by this Negative way of Arguing those that imploy it do not implicitly at least take upon them to judge of the Ends that God may have propos'd to himself in Natural things For without a Supposition that they know what God design'd in setting Matter a-moving 't is hard for them to shew that His Design could not be such as might be best accomplish'd by sometimes adding to and sometimes taking from the Quantity of Motion he communicated to Matter at first And I think it may be worth considering Whether by this Doctrine of theirs the Cartesians do not more take upon them than other Philosophers to judge of God's Designs For if a Man be known to be very Wise and have various ways of compassing his several Ends He that seeing some of those ways have a direct tendency to some Rational End shall conclude That End to be one of those that is intended does thereby less presume and express more respect to that Wise Man than he that should conclude that those cannot be his Ends and that He can have no other Design knowable by us except a certain General one nam'd by the Assertor And indeed it seems more easie to know that this or that particular thing for which an Engine is proper may be among others intended by the Artificer tho' never so Skilful than to know Negatively that he can have no other than such or such an End. And how will a Cartesian assure me that among the many Ends that he grants that God may have propos'd to himself in the Production of his Mundane Creatures one may not be That We whom he has vouchsaf'd to make Intelligent Beings and capable of Admiring and Praising him should find just cause to do so for the Wisdom and Goodness he has display'd in the World which Attributes we could not well discern or celebrate unless we knew as well that the Creatures were made for such Uses as that they are exceedingly well fitted for them I know God's Immutability is alledged to prove that the Quantity of Motion is never vary'd But to me 't is not evident why God's having particular Ends tho' some of them seem to require a Change in his way of Acting in Natural Things must be more inconsistent with his Immutability than his Causing many things to be brought to pass which tho' abaeterno he decreed to do are yet not actually done unless in process of Time. And particularly it seems not clear why God may not as well be Immutable tho' he should sometimes vary the Quantity of Motion that he has put into the World as He is tho' according to the Opinion of most of the Cartesians themselves he does daily create multitudes of Rational Souls to unite them to Human Bodies Especially considering that these newly created substances are according to Des-Cartes endow'd with a power to determine and regulate the motions of the Spirits and the Conarion which are things clearly Corporeal I say not this as if I absolutely rejected the Cartesian Doctrine about the continuance of the same Quantity of Motion in the whole Mass of Matter For whether or no it be a Truth I think 't is no unuseful nor improbable Hypothesis And I have not so much argued against it as upon the Grounds on which they argue for it Wherefore to come now to the thing it self whereas Monsieur Des-Cartes objects that 't is a Presumption for Man to pretend to be able to investigate the Ends that the Omniscient God propos'd to himself in the making of his Creatures I consider by way of Answer That there are two very differing ways wherein a Man may pretend to know the Ends of God in his visible Works For he may either pretend to know only some of God's Ends in some of his Works or he may pretend to know all his Ends. He that arrogates to himself to discover God's Ends in this latter sense will scarce be excus'd from a high Presumption and no less a Folly from the reason lately intimated in the Cartesian Objection But to pretend to know God's Ends in the former sense is not a Presumption but rather to take notice of them is a Duty For there are some things in Nature so curiously contrived and so exquisitly fitted for certain Operations and Uses that it seems little less than Blindness in Him that acknowledges with the Cartesians a most wise Author of things not to conclude that tho' they may have been design'd for other and perhaps higher Uses yet they were design'd for this Use As he that sees the Admirable Fabric of the Coats Humors and Muscles of the Eyes and how excellently all the parts are adapted to the making up of an Organ of Vision can scarce forbear to believe that the Author of Nature intended It should serve the Animal to which it belongs to See with The Epicureans indeed that believe the World to have been produc'd but by the casual concourse of Atoms without the intervention of any Intelligent Being may have a kind of excuse whereof other Philosophers are destitute that acknowledge a Deity if not also a Providence For the very Supposition for instance that a mans Eyes were made by Chance argues that they need have no relation to a designing Agent and the use that a man makes of them may be either casual too or at least may be an effect of His knowledge not of Nature's But when upon the Anatomical Dissection and the Optical Consideration of a Human Eye we see 't is as exquisitly fitted to be an organ of Sight as the best Artificer in the world could have fram'd a little Engine purposely and mainly design'd for the use of seeing 't is very harsh and incongruous to say that an Artificer who is too intelligent either to do things by chance or to make a curious piece of workmanship without knowing what uses 't is fit for should not design it for an
be greater or lesser the Contrivance is very rarely so Exquisite but that the various Motions and Occursions of the parts of Matter may be without much Improbability suspected to be capable after many Essays to cast one another into divers of those Circumvolutions of Matter that I remember Epicurus calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Des-Cartes Vortices which being once made may continue very long by the means express'd by Cartesius or by some other as probable Ones But without allowing this Hypothesis to be more than not very improbable when I consider what Causes there may be to fear that we are not yet sufficiently acquainted with the true System of the World and are not usually sensible enough how small a part We and the Terrestrial Globe we inhabit make of the Universe I am apt to fear too that Men are wont with greater Confidence than Evidence to assign the Systematical Ends and Uses of the Coelestial Bodies and to conclude them to be made and moved only for the service of the Earth and its Inhabitants And tho' even as a meer Naturalist I will not deny that as Man actually receives Benefits by the establish'd order and motion of the Stars so one of the several Uses intended by the Author of Nature in them may particularly respect Men yet I am apt to think that by what we hitherto know 't will not be easie to be prov'd that some at least of the Coelestial Bodies and Motions may not be intended more for other purposes than to cast their Beams or shed their Influences supposing they have some upon the Earth And at least I cannot but think that the Situations of the Coelestial Bodies do not afford by far so clear and cogent Arguments of the Wisdom and Design of the Author of the World as do the bodies of Animals and Plants And for my part I am apt to think there is more of admirable Contrivance in a Mans Muscles than in what we yet know of the Celestial Orbs and that the Eye of a Fly is at least as far as appears to us a more curious piece of Workmanship than the Body of the Sun. As for other Inanimate Bodies as Stones Metals c whose matter seems not organiz'd tho' there be no absurdity to think that they also were made for distinct particular purposes if not also for Human Uses yet most of them are of such easy and unelaborate contextures that it seems not absurd to think that various occursions and justlings of the parts of the Universal matter may at one time or other have produc'd them since we see in some Chymical Sublimations and Christallizations of Mineral and Mettalline Solutions and some other Phaenomena where the motions appear not to be Particularly guided and directed by an Intelligent Cause that Bodies of as various Contextures as those are wont to be may be produc'd of which I have elsewhere given some Instances If it be objected that if we allow Chance or any thing else without the particular Guidance of a wise and All-disposing Cause to make a finely shap'd Stone or a metalline substance growing as I have some times seen silver to do in the form of a Plant it ought not to be denyed that Chance may also make Vegetables and Animals I can by no means allow the consequence There are some effects that are so easy and so ready to be produc'd that they do not infer any knowledge or intention in their Causes but there are others that require such a number and concourse of conspiring Causes and such a continued series of motions or operations that 't is utterly improbable they should be produced without the superintendency of a Rational Agent Wise and Powerfull enough to range and dispose the several intervening Agent 's and Instruments after the manner requisite to the production of such a remote effect And therefore it will not follow that if Chance could produce a slight contexture in a few parts of matter we may safely conclude it able to produce so exquisit and admirable a Contrivance as that of the Body of an Animal What then if sometimes in sawing pieces of variegated Marble men happen tho' rarely to meet with the Delineations or Pictures some of which I have beheld with pleasure of Towns Woods and Men For besides that the pleasingness and rarity of such spectacles inclines the Imagination to favour them and supply their defects would any wise man therefore conclude that a real Town or wood much less numbers of men should be made by such a forluitons concourse of matter What comparison is there betwixt the workmanship that seems to be expressed in a few irregular Lines drawn upon a plane superficies and perhaps two or three Colours luckily plac'd and the great multitude of Nerves Veins Arteries Ligaments Tendons Membranes Bones Glandules c. that are required to the compleating of a human Body of which numerous parts for the Bones alone are reckon'd to amount to three hundred every one must have it's determinate size figure consistence situation connexion c. and many or all of them together must conspire to such and such determinate Functions or uses And indeed tho' I keep by me some curious ones yet I never saw any Inanimate production of Nature or as they speak of Chance whose contrivance was comparable to that of the meanest Limb of the dispicablest Animal and there is incomparably more Art express'd in the structure of a Doggs foot then in that of the famous Clock at Strasburg And tho' the Paw of a Dog will be confess'd to be of a structure far Inferior to that of the Hand of a man yet even This however Aristotle prettily styles it the Instrument of Instruments is a less considerable Instance to my present purpose than another Instance which therefore since my intended brevity permits me not to consider many I shall pitch upon as that which I shall almost only insist on in the following part of this Tract And this Instance is afforded me by the Eye For Tho' the parts that concurr to make up that admirable Organ of vision are very numerous yet how little any of them could have been spar'd or alter'd unless for the worse may appear by that great Number of Diseases that have been observ'd in that little part of the Body Since each of those Diseases consist in this that some of the Coats Humors or other parts of the Eye is brought into a State differing from that whereto Nature had design'd it and whereinto she had put it 'T would be tedious so much as to enumerate the several distempers of the Eye whereunto Physitians have given particular Names wherefore I shall only mention two or three things wherein one would scarce imagine that a small recess from the natural state could bring any considerable or perhaps sensible inconvenience That which we call the Pupil is not you know a substantial part of the Eye but only a hole of the Vvea which
is time we proceed in our Discourse Other Instances to the same purpose with this are elsewhere deliver'd and therefore I shall now to strengthen the Apology for Divine providence take notice that the differing structures and Situations of the Eyes in several Animals are very fit to shew the foecundity of the Divine Authors Skill if I may so speak in being able to frame so great a Variety of exquisite Instruments of Vision And indeed if I may presume to guess at any of Gods Ends that are not manifest for some others of his Ends seem Conspicuous I should think that this delightful and wonderful Variety that we may observe not only in Animals themselves consider'd as entire Systemes but in those parts of them that appear destinated for the same Function as particularly that of Seeing was design'd at least among other Ends to display the multiplicity of the great Creators Wisdom and Shew his intelligent Creatures that his Skill is not confin'd to one sort of Living Engines nor in the parts of the same kind as Eyes Ears Teeth c. to the same Contrivances but is able to make for the same use a multitude of surprising Organs or Instruments tho' not perhaps all equally Perfect since to do so we may think he must make no Animals but Men yet all of them curious and exquisite in their kinds and in order to their differing Ends. To be able to frame both Clocks and Watches and Ships and Rockets and Granadoes and Pumps and Mills c. argues and manifests a far greater Skill in an Artificer than he could display in making but one of those sorts of Engines how artificially soever he contriv'd it And the same superiority of knowledge would be display'd by contriving Engines of the same kind or for the same purposes after very differing manners As Weights indeed are of great use and necessity in the famous Clock of Strasburg and therefore it recommends the Inventors of Watches not only that they can make Clocks of a very little and easily portable Bulk which the Strasburg Machine is not but can make a Clock without weights and by means of a Spring perform their Office. And thus tho' to fly it seems absolutely necessary that an Animal should be furnisht with Feathers the Wise Creator hath shewn that he is not confin'd to make use of them for that purpose since a Flying Fish is able to move a great way in the Air and the Indies have lately furnisht us with a sort of flying Squirrils whereof I saw one alive at White-Hall And tho' the flight of these is not long yet there is another kind of Animals without Feathers that can fly long enough namely the Batt tho' some of these as I have seen be little less then Hens and I have been assurd by a credible Eye-witness that in the kingdom of Golconda He had seen much bigger But tho' this consideration may suffice to justify the Wisdom of the Creator who being an Agent most Free as well as most Wise Men ought not to find fault if he think fit to Recommend his Wisdom by displaying it in very different manners yet this is not all that may be said on this occasion For there are many Cases and perhaps far more than we imagine wherein the peculiar and in some regards less perfect fabrick or situation of an Eye or other Organical part may be more convenient than the correspondent Organ of Man to attain the Ends for which was given to an Animal that was to act upon such a Theatre and live by such Provision Besides that an Organical part may in some Animals be intended for more uses than in others and therefore may require a differing structure as in Moles the Feet are otherwise fram'd or situated than in other Quadrupeds because the chief use they were to make of them was to walk upon the Ground but to Dig themselves ways Under Ground The provident 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 wisely suiting the Fabrick of the Parts to the Uses that were to be made of them as a mechanist imploys another Contrivance of his Wheels Pinions c. when he is to grind corn with a Mill that is to be driven by Water than when he is to do the same thing by a Mill that is to be mov'd by the Wind. And the Camelion has a Tongue both pecurliarly shap'd and of a length disproportionate to that of his Body because he was to take his Prey by shooting out if I may so speak his Tongue at the Flies he was to live upon and could not often approach them very near without frighting them away And in many Cases in which this Reflection does not so properly take place we may observe that there is a wonderful Compensation made for that which seems a desect in the parts of an Animal of this or that particular species compar'd with the correspondent ones of a Man or an Animal of some other species Thus Birds that except the Bat and one or two more want Teeth to chew their food are not only furnish'd with hard Bills to break it and Birds of prey as Hawks c. with crooked ones to tear it but which is more considerable have Crops to prepare and soften it and very strong Muscular Stomachs to digest and grind it In which work they are usually help'd by gravel and little stones that they are led by Instinct to swallow and which are often found and sometimes in amazing numbers in their Stomachs where they may prove a vicarious kind of Teeth I shall hereafter have occasion to say somewhat more against Their Opinion that find fault with those Animated Structures that we think to be Productions of the Divine Wisdom under pretence that the Parts of some living Creatures are not so curious and Symmetrical as not to have been casually producible But in the mean time I shall here note for those that ascribe so much to Chance that Chance is really no natural Cause or Agent but a Creature of Man's Intellect For the things that are done in the Corporeal World are really done by the parts of the Universal Matter acting and suffering according to the Laws of Motion establish'd by the Author of Nature But we Men looking upon some of these parts as directed in their Motions by God or at least by Nature and dispos'd to the attainment of certain Ends if by the intervention of other Causes that we are not aware of an Effect be produc'd very differing from that which we suppos'd was intended we say that such an Effect was produc'd by Chance So that Chance is indeed but a Notion of Ours and such a thing as a Schoolman man might call an Extrinsecal Denomination and signifies but this that in our apprehensions the Physical Causes of an Effect did not Intend the Production of what they nevertheless produc'd And therefore I wonder not that the Philosophers that preceded Aristotle should not treat of Chance among Natural Causes As we
may learn from Aristotle himself who is more just to Them in Suspecting they own'd not such a Cause than in Taxing them of an Omission for not having Treated of it And on this occasion I shall only add before I proceed that whereas some of the most curiously shap'd kind of Stones as the Astroites have embolden'd many of the Favourers of Epicurus to bring them into Competition with these Animals or Parts of Animals from their likeness to which they have receiv'd their Names it is fit to be consider'd First that some Learned Men have of late made it very probable that some of the curiousest sorts of these Stones were once really the Animals whose shapes they bear or those Parts of Animals which they resemble which Animal substances were afterwards turned into Stones by the supervening of some Petrescent Matter or Petrifying Cause of which Metamorphosis I have met with and do elsewhere mention more Instances than are fit to be so much as named in this place Secondly Though some of those sorts of Stones were the Production of the Mineral Kingdom for I will not be Dogmatical in this Point yet besides that it would not clearly follow that they owe their shapes to Chance since there is no absurdity to admit Seminal Principles in some more elaborate sorts of Fossiles I think it would be very injurious to make these Productions vye with the Animals to which they are Compared For the Resemblance of shapes wherein alone they and the Animals Agree being but the Outward Figure is but a Superficial thing and not worthy to be mention'd in comparison of that wherein they differ The rude and slight Contexture of the best shap'd Stones being incomparably inferior to the Internal contrivance of an Animal which must consist of a multitude of Parts of such a Figure Bulk Texture Situation c. as cannot but be obvious to any that have seen Dissections skilfully made And 't is not only in the Stable and Quiescent parts that this great Internal Difference between Stones and the Animals they resemble is to be found but there is in a Living Animal a greater difference than any of the Knives of Anatomists can shew us in a Dead one betwixt a Stone tho'never so curiously Figur'd and an Animal For there are I know not how many Liquors Spirits Digestions Secretions Coagulations and Motions of the whole Body and of the Limbs and other parts which are lodged and perform'd in a Living Body and not in a Cadaver and are perchance far more admirable even than the structure of the stable and quiescent Parts themselves So that tho' a Stone outwardly very like a Shell-fish were made by Chance yet from thence to Conclude that Chance may make a real Living Shell-fish would be to argue worse than he that should contend that because even an unskilful Smith may make a hollow piece of Metal like a Watch Case tho' he can fill it but with filings of Iron or some other rude Stuff he must be able to make a Watch there being less difference betwixt the skill express'd in making the Case of a Watch and the Movement than in making a Body like a Shell and the Internal parts of a real Fish Or to say that because Putrefaction and Winds have sometimes made Trees hollow and blown them down into the Water where they swim like Boats therefore the like Causes may make a Galley built and contriv'd as well within as without according to the Laws of Naval Architecture and furnish'd with Mariners to Row it Steer it and in a word to excite and guide all its Motions to the best Advantage for the Preservation and various Uses of the Vessel In short if Chance sometimes does some strange things 't is in reference to what She her self but not to what Nature uses to perform And now to give you the Summary of my Thoughts about the Second Question 1. I think that from the Ends and Uses of the Parts of Living Bodies the Naturalist may draw Arguments provided he do it with due Cautions of which I shall speak under the fourth Question 2. That the Inanimate Bodies here below that proceed not from Seminal Principles have but a more parable Texture if I may so speak as Earths Liquors Flints Pebbles and will not easily warrant Ratiocinations drawn from their supposed Ends. 3. I think the Coelestial Bodies do abundantly declare God's Power and Greatness by the Immensity of their Bulk and if the Earth stand still the Celerity of their Motions and also argue his Wisdom and general Providence as to them because He has for so many Ages kept so many vast Vortices or other Masses of Matter in scarce conceivably rapid Motions without destroying one another or loosing their Regularity And I see no Absurdity in supposing that among other Uses of the Sun and of the Stars the Service of Man might be intended but yet I doubt whether from the bare Contemplation of the Heavens and their Motions it may be cogently inferr'd at least so strongly as Final Causes may be from the structure of Animals that either the sole or the chief End of them all is to enlighten the Earth and bring Benefits to the Creatures that live upon it In what has been hitherto said on our Second Question 't is plain that I suppose the Naturalist to discourse meerly upon Physical Grounds But if the Revelations contain'd in the Holy Scriptures be admitted we may rationally believe More and speak less Haesitantly of the Ends of God than bare Philosophy will warrant us to do For if God is pleased to declare to us any thing concerning His Intentions in the making of his Creatures we ought to believe it tho' the Consideration of the things themselves did not give us the least suspicion of it which yet in our case they do And therefore a late Ingenious Author did causlessly reflect upon me for having mention'd the Enlightning of the Earth and the Service of Men among the Ends of God which he thought undiscoverable by us For whether or no we can discover them by meer Reason as divers of the Heathen Philosophers thought they did yet sure we may know Those that God is pleas'd to Reveal to us And the Persons I argu'd with were apparently such as admitted the Authority of the Scriptures which expresly teach us Gen. 1.16 that God made the two great Luminaries for so I should render the Hebrew words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the greater for the rule of the Day and the lesser for the rule of the Night And that He made the Stars also and set them in the Firmament or rather Expansum of the Heaven to give Light upon the Earth And a little above among the Uses of the Luminaries these are reckon'd ver 14. to divide the Day from the Night and to be for Signs and for Seasons and for Days and Years And in another place the Prophet Moses dehorting the Israelites from Worshiping the
be Good and Solid they will easily in so Learned an Age as This find an Architect that will Dispose them in a more Artful Way than I was either at Leisure or Sollicitous to do AN ESSAY INQUIRING Whether and How a Naturalist should Consider Final Causes To my very Learned Friend Mr. F. O. SIR THough in a Book or two of mine that you have already been pleas'd to peruse there are some passages whence you may easily enough gather what I thought about your Questions yet because the Subject is of great moment as well as difficulty and you may suspect I have alter'd my opinion I shall without referring you to writings which perhaps neither you nor I have at hand set down succinctly but yet as if I had said nothing of any of them before my present thoughts about these Four Questions I. Whether generally or indefinitely speaking there be any Final Causes of things Corporeal knowable by Naturalists II. Whether if the first Question be resolv'd in the Affirmative we may consider Final Causes in all sorts of Bodies or only in some peculiarly qualified ones III. Whether or in what sense the Acting for Ends may be ascrib'd to an Unintelligent and even Inanimate Body IV. And lastly How far and with what Cautions Arguments may be fram'd upon the supposition of Final Causes SECT I. TO begin with the first Question Those that would exclude Final Causes from the consideration of the Naturalist are wont to do it for ought I have observ'd upon one of these two Accounts Either that with Epicurus they think the world was the Production of Atoms and Chance without any intervention of a Deity and that consequently 't is improper and in vain to seek for Final Causes in the effects of Chance Or that they judge with Des Cartes that God being an Omniscient Agent 't is rash and presumptuous for men to think that they know or can investigate what Ends he propos'd to himself in his Actings about his Creatures The Ground on which the Epicureans have rejected Final Causes has been disallow'd by the Philosophers of almost all other Sects and some have written sufficient Confutations of it which therefore I shall here forbear to insist on though somethings I shall upon occasion observe that may help if not suffice to discredit so unreasonable an Opinion But the Cartesian Argument has been so prevalent among many Learned and Ingenious men that it will be worth while if it be but to excite better Pens to spend some time in the Consideration of it Perhaps one thing that alienated that excellent Philosopher from allowing the Consideration of Final Causes in Physicks was that the School-Philosophers and many other Learned men are wont to propose it too unwarily as if there were no Creature in the world that was not solely or at least chiefly design'd for the Service or Benefit of Man Insomuch that I remember I have seen a Body of Divinity publish'd by a famous Writer wherein to prove the opinion he favours of those that would have the world annihilated after the day of Judgement he urgeth this Argument That since the World was made for the sake of Man in his travelling Condition homini viatoris causa when once Man is possess'd of his Everlasting State of Happiness or Misery there will be no further use of the World. The opinion that gives rise to such presumptuous and unwarrantable Expressions did as I guess by his objection more choque Des Cartes than I wonder that it should displease him But the indicretion of men ought not to prejudice Truth which must not be cast away with the unwarrantable Conceits that some men have pinn'd upon it Wherefore since I cannot entirely close either with the opinion of the Epicureans or of the Cartesians I shall leave each party to maintain its own opinion and proceed to propose mine For the clearing of which and indeed of the Disquisition of Final Causes I shall beg leave to premise a Distinction which though novel I shall venture to employ because it comprises and distinguishes some things which I think ought neither to be overlook'd nor confounded I conceive then that when we speak of the Ends which Nature or rather the Author of Nature is said to have in things Corporeal One of these four things may be signify'd or if you like that expression better the End design'd by Nature may be fourfold First there may be some grand and General Ends of the whole World such as the Exercising and Displaying the Creators immense Power and admirable Wisdom the Communication of his Goodness and the Admiration and Thanks due to him from his Intelligent Creatures for these his divine Excellencies whose Productions manifest his Glory And these Ends because they regard the Creation of the whole Universe I call the Vniversal Ends of God or Nature Secondly in a somewhat more restrain'd sense there may be Ends design'd in the number fabrick placing and wayes of moving the great Masses of Matter that for their Bulks or Qualities are considerable parts of the World since 't is very probable that these bodies such as the Sun Moon and fixed Stars and the Terraqueous Globe and perhaps each of its two chief parts the Earth and the Sea were so fram'd and plac'd as not only to be capable of persevering in their own present state but also as was most conducive to the Universal Ends of the Creation and the good of the whole World whereof they are notable parts Upon which account these Ends may for distinctions sake be call'd Cosmical or Systematical as regarding the Symmetry of the great System of the world There is a Third sort of Ends that do more peculiarly concern the Parts of Animals and probably Plants too which are those that the particular parts of Animals are destinated to and for the welfare of the whole Animal himself as he is an entire and distinct System of organiz'd parts destinated to preserve himself and propagate his Species upon such a Theatre as the Land Water or Air as his Structure and Circumstances determine him to act his part on And these Ends to discriminate them from others may be call'd Animal Ends. Fourthly and lastly there is another sort of Ends which because they relate particularly to Man may for brevity's sake be call'd Human Ends which are those that are aim'd at by Nature where she is said to frame Animals and Vegetables and other of her productions for the use of Man. And these Ends themselves may be distinguish'd into Mental that relate to His Mind and Corporeal that relate to His Body not only as He is an Animal fram'd like other Animals for his own Preservation and the propagation of his Species Mankind but also as He is fram'd for Dominion over other Animals and works of Nature and fitted to make them subservient to the Destinations that one may suppose to have been made of them to His service and benefit This Distinction of Final
Sun the Moon and the Stars tells them that the Lord had imparted them unto all nations under the whole Heaven Deut. 4.19 And therefore those Cartesians that being Divines Admit the Authority of Holy Scripture should not reject the Consideration of such Final Causes as Revelation discovers to us since 't is certainly no presumption to think we know Gods Ends when he himself acquaints us with them nor to beleive that the Sun tho' it be generally esteem'd to be a nobler Body than the Terrestrial Globe was made among other Purposes to give Light to its Inhabitants 'T is recorded in the Book of Genesis Gen. 1.26 27 28. the Design of God in making man was that men should Subdue the Earth as vast a Globe as 't is and have dominion over the Fish of the Sea and over the Fowle of the Air and over the Cattle and over all the Earth and to speak Summarily over every living thing that moveth upon the Earth Gen 9.23 And the same Book informs us that after the Deluge God deliver'd all Terrestrial Beasts and Fowle and Fishes and every moving thing that lives into the hands of Men and intended that they should eat Animals Gen. 1.29 as before the Flood He had appointed them all the sorts of wholsome Vegetables for their Food And since God was pleased to appoint that men should live on these Creatures it cannot be absurd to say that among other Purposes to which he destinated the Sun His Shining upon the Earth was one since without His Light and Heat men could not provide for or enjoy themselves and neither those Plants that Men and Cattel must live upon could grow and ripen nor consequently those Animals that were to be their principal Food and serve them for many other uses could be sustain'd and provided for Many other Texts that show how much God was pleas'd to intend mans welfare and Dominion over many of his Fellow-creatures might be here alledg'd But I shall content my self to mention what the Kingly Prophet sayes in the 8th Psalm Psal 8.56 where speaking of Man to his Maker he sayes Thou hast made him a little lower than the Angels and hast crown'd him with Glory and Honour Thou mad'st him to have dominion over the works of thine hands and hast put all things under his Feet Indeed if in Man we consider only that Visible Part his Body the smallness of it may make it thought improbable that Portions of the Universe incomparably greater than He should be at all intended to be serviceable to Him. But Christians ought not to think this incredible if they consider Man as he chiefly consists of a Rational Mind which proceeds immediately from God and is capable of knowing him loving him and being Eternally happy with him They that despise Man consider'd in this capacity do very little know the worth of a Rational Soul and estimate things like Masons and not like Jewellers who justly value a Diamond no bigger than a Bean more than a whole Quarry of ordinary Stones And particularly to those Undervaluers of their own Species that are Divines it may be represented that God who will not be deny'd to be the best Judge in this case as in all others was pleas'd to consider Men so much as to give David cause to admire it in the words lately cited and not only to endow them with his Image at their first Creation but when they had criminally lost and forfeited it he vouchsaf'd to Redeem them by no less than the Sufferings and Death of his own Son who is incomparably more excellent than the whole World. And 't is not incredible that God should have intended that many of his other works should be serviceable to Man since by Miraculous Operations he hath some times Suspended the Laws of Nature and sometimes Over rul'd them upon the account of Man as may appear by Noahs Flood by the passage of the Israelites on dry Land through the Red Sea and the River of Jordan by the standing still of the Sun and Moon or the Terestrial Globe at Joshua's command by the in efficacy of the burning Fiery Furnace on Daniels three Companions and to be short by the stupendious Ecclipse of the Sun at the full Moon at the Crucifixion of the Messias To which I might add that the chief part of Mankind namely the Children of God will by their most bountiful Remunerator be thought fit to inhabit the New World for that by an Hebraism is meant by the new Heavens and the new Earth St. Peter speaks of which shall succeed the Renovation and Refinement of the Present World by the last Fire 2 Pet. 3.10 11 12 13. that will not only Dissolve but if I may so so speak Transfigure it And we shall the less scruple to admit that such vast and bright Bodies as the Sun and Moon may be design'd among other things to be serviceable to Men if we consider that 't is so far from being a constant Rule That a Thing more excellent cannot by a wise Agent be imploy'd for the good of one that is less so that not only the first Angel whose Apparition we read of in the Scripture Gen. 16.9 c. was sent to relieve Hagar a Slave wandring in a Wilderness another had regard to the life of a Sooth-sayers Asse Numb 22.23 Gen. 32.1 2. 2 Kings 6.17 and many others and sometimes Companies of them were imployd on Earth to do good Offices to particular persons but of all the Angels in general the Excellent Epistle to to the Hebrews informs us Heb. 1.14 That they are Ministring Spirits sent forth to Minister unto them who shall be Heirs of Salvation SECT III. TO handle the Third Question †viz. Whether and in what sense the Acting for Ends may be ascribed to an Vnintelligent and even Inanimate Body It will be necessary for us to clear the grand Difficulty that has ever since Aristotles time and even before that Perplex'd those that allow in Natural ral Philosophy the Consiâ—eration of Final Causes The Difficulty is obvious enough For much the greater part of Bodies being â—oâ—d of Knowledge and most of them as all Inanimate Bodies of Life it self it seems not conceivable how they should act constantly for Ends they are not capable of preâ—â—signing and appositely impâ—oy M 〈…〉 that they have no Knowledge wherewith to make choice of Aristotle who expresly teaches that Nature does nothing in vain and rightly judg'd that the Actions of Natural Agents tended to certain Ends vid. Aristot De Coelo lib. II. c. 5. eund De Gen. Interitu lib. II. cap. 10. takes notice of this Difficulty but seems rather to Shift it off than Resolve it The Solution he frames regarding so peculiarly the Words wherein he has express'd the Objection that I much doubt whether it would signifie much to clear the same Difficulty propos'd in other Terms And to me he seems to
that Diseases or Hurts alone may shew how excellently all the Parts of our Bodys are Contriv'd in order to our Welfare For if so much as a Finger be made Bigger by Tumors or Displac'd by being put out of Joynt or kept in a Wrong Posture by Contractions or have its Continuity violated by Cutting or its Tone chang'd by Strains or Contusions or its Sense or Motion taken away by the Palsey or its Membranes fretted by Sharp Humors or its Motions Disorder'd by the Cramp or Convulsions In any of these Cases we quickly find how Commodiously the Parts Affected were Framed or Dispos'd when any Disease or Hurt gives them a Preternatural Constitution that is changes that Figure Connexion Tone c which according to the Institution of Nature whilst the Body is in full Health does belong to it The Eye to single out again that Part for an Instance is so little fitted for almost any other Use in the Body and is so exquisitely adapted for the Use of Seeing and That Use is so necessary for the welfare of the Animal that it may well be doubted whether any Considering Man can really think that It was not destinated to that Use The six or seven Muscles that move the whole Bulbe of the Eye upwards downwards to the right Hand to the left and to various oblique Positions and the several Coats and Humors that make up the Sensory Have not only their Bigness Shape Consistence Situation and Connexion admirably Adapted to that End but the Transparency of the Cornea and the Humors the Opacity of the Vvea and the Semi-opacity of the Retina and the several Motions of the Parts of the Eye being requisite to Receive Transmit Refract and Dispose the Visive Beams that come from the Object after the manner requisite to make the Liveliest Picture of it in the Bottom of the Eye Do no less concur to Compleat this matchless Organ of Vision which is so rarely Contrived in order to That Use and comparatively so little to any Other that there is no more Rashness to say that an Eye than that a Telescope was made for an Instrument to See with that is to Discover the Colours Magnitudes Shapes and Motions of Distant Objects And in that admirable Perforation of the Vvea which we call the Pupil Nature has much outdone Art. For whereas We are fain to apply to the Object Glasses of Telescopes Opacous Bodys with several Circular Apertures that Some may let in less Light and Others more according as the Objects are more or less Bright or Inlighten'd That part of the Vvea that hangs in the Aqueous Humor is an Aperture as the Artists call it that Narrows and Opens it self in a trice according to the exigency of the Objects we look on Which if they be so constituted or plac'd that they Reflect but a Dim Light the Curtain is presently drawn Open and the Pupil circularly Widen'd to let in the more Beams of Light and the Contrary happens as often as the Object being too Luminous or Illustrated would offend the Organ or disturb the Sight if the Contraction of the Pupil did not shut out some of Its Beams But for the Uses of the several parts of the Eye I shall referr you to the Industrious Jesuit Scheiner's Oculus and Des Cartes his excellent Dioptricks where you will easily perceive that in Framing the Eye Nature did not only act with Design but with so much Skill in Opticks that a more than ordinary insight into that Science is necessary to Understand the Wisdom of the Contrivances and perhaps no degree of Skill in it would enable a man to Alter them for the better 'T were tedious to mention the Other Parts of the Body that manifestly appear to have been preordain'd to certain Uses The Books of Anatomists are full of Passages applicable to this purpose of which I shall say in general that tho' what they deliver suffices to shew That all the Parts of the Body are the Effects of an Intelligent Cause yet unless their Descriptions and Reflexions be improv'd by Men vers'd in Mathematicks and Mechanicks and I shall venture to add in Chymistry too we shall but imperfectly understand how Intelligent that Cause is or how much Wisdom it has display'd in the Structure of a Human Body and each of its parts I know 't is objected by the Epicureans Illud in his rebus vitium vehementer inesto Effugere illorumque errorem premeditemur Lumina qui faciunt Oculorum clara creata Prospicere ut possimus Lucret. de Nat. l. iv Nihil ideo quoniam natum est in Corpore ut uti possemus sed quod natum est id procreat Vsum Ibid. that the Parts of Animals were first made and their Uses afterwards found out by mens Sagacity But this is a Sophistical Objection For first as to many of the Inner parts as the Heart Liver Spleen Kidneys c They perform their Functious without so much as Our Knowledge of their Structure or perhaps their Situation so far are they from being applyed to such Uses by Our Sagacity And as for the Limbs and other Parts which we can Move at pleasure 't is true that they cannot be actually Imployed to the respective Uses till they be actually Form'd but That hinders not but that in their Formation they were therefore so Formed that they may be in due time fit for such Uses And therefore we see that the Chick is furnished with compleat Eyes and with Wings and Feathers before he be Hatch'd tho' whilst he is yet inclos'd in the Egg he can not make use of them to See or Flye And why was it do the Epicureans think that Nature provided a whole Set of Temporary Parts for Pregnant Females and Animals in the Womb which when they are come into a freer state partly fall away of themselves and partly turn to a Ligament fitted no longer for the former but for a more seasonable Use And 't is to be noted that the Production of these Umbilical Vessels and the Placenta or Analogous Body in the Womb to which they are fasten'd is of no Necessity nor Use to the Female before Conception and thereby those Temporary Parts appear to have bin Design'd by Nature not so much for the Personal Preservation of the Female as for the Propagation of the Species Which Destination not coming to be accomplished till a Woman for instance has attain'd to a competent Age appears to have been preordain'd by the Author of Mankind for the Continuation of It. And tho' it be true that the Sagacity of men may have found out some Uses of some Parts of their Bodys that cannot be made appear to have been Primarily Intended by the Author of Nature yet That is no good Argument that those Uses were not Intended which either are made Within us or do as it were obtrude themselves Upon Us. And as for other Uses the Prescience and Goodness of God are such that it
ought not to appear incredible That He that gave man both the Limbs of his Body and the Rational Endowments of his Mind and that has made many Parts as the Eyes and the Ears Double that One may supply the want of the Other Did both Foresee what Uses men might according to their Sagacitys and Emergencies make of these Parts and so Contrive the Parts that they should be applicable to such Uses Suppose a Wise man should send his Son to Travel and among other things give him a Pocket-Dyal with a Magnetic Needle and this Traveller having lost his way in some wild Plain or being at Sea in a Vessel whose Compass was broken or spoyl'd by a Storm or some other Mischance If I say in this case tho' the Traveller Ordinarily Imployed his Dyal only to find the Hour of the Day He shall now Imploy it to Guide his Course or Steer the Vessel by the help of the Needles pointing Northward tho' this would be an Effect of His own Sagacity yet his Father being a Wise and Experienced Man may reasona bly enough be suppos'd to have Foreseen that his Son might have need of knowing the Northern and Southern Points of the Horizon And accordingly may have given him a Dial furnish'd with a Magnetic Needle rather than an Ordinary Gnomonic Dial. And so a Man that has taught another to Paint Landskips when he gives him a Pencil and a Pallet furnish'd with Colours to draw a Particular Prospect is not to be suppos'd to have Design'd that he should not Imploy them to any other purpose if Urgent Circumstances made it requisite for him to do so Having insisted longer than I intended upon the former part of my Proposition I now proceed to the latter namely That in some cases we may from the known Ends of Nature as well as from the Structure of the Parts ground Probable Conjectures both Affirmative and Negative about the particular Offices of the Parts Which I could not seasonably doe before because the Arguments that were founded on the Uses of the Parts of Animals suppose not only that those Parts were destinated to Particular Uses knowable by Us but that the several Parts of the Body were Contrived as Wisely and Commodiously as Men are able to Devise in order to the Ends of Nature which is always to be understood to have United in her Designs the Uses of the Parts and the Welfare of the Whole And indeed if we consider how admirable a Fitness there is in the Parts of the Human Body for instance to those Particular Ends we can discover them to have been Predesign'd for it seems allowable to Conjecture that such a Part was not Primarily Design'd to such an Use because it is on the account of its Structure or otherwise less Fitted for it than the constant Wisdom of Nature seems to require especially if there be any Other Parts by which That Office may be more commodiously perform'd And on the other side it may be a Probable Ground tho' not altogether so Probable as the former to Conclude that such a Part was Destinated to such an Use if the Use it self appear to be necessary and the Part better fitted for it than any Other is Thus tho' Anatomical and Optical Writers as well as the Schools did for many ages unanimously conclude the Crystalline Humor to be the Principal Seat of Vision yet the industrious Scheiner in his useful Tract intituled Oculus does Justly enough reject that receiv'd Opinion by shewing that it Suits not with the Skill and Providence of Nature to make that Part the Seat or chief Organ of Vision for which it wants divers requisite Qualifications especially most of these being to be found in the Retina And I remember that when I asked our famous Harvey in the only Discourse I had with him which was but a while be fore he dyed What were the things that induc'd him to think of a Circulation of the Blood He answer'd me that when he took notice that the Valves in the Veins of so many several Parts of the Body were so Plac'd that they gave free passage to the Blood Towards the Heart but oppos'd the passage of the Venal Blood the Contrary way He was invited to imagine that so Provident a Cause as Nature had not so Plac'd so many Valves without Design and no Design seem'd more probable than That since the Blood could not well because of the interposing Valves be Sent by the Veins to the Limbs it should be Sent through the Arteries and Return through the Veins whose Valves did not oppose its course that way Thus whereas former Anatomists and Physicians generally believed the Nutrition of the Parts by the Venal Blood the more Recent Writers are wont to teach that the Parts are nourish'd by the Blood in its passage through the Arteries Not that they Think the Blood that runs through the Veins altogether unfit to Irrigate the Parts with that Vital Liquor but that they Judge the Veins to be less fit than the Arteries into which the Blood comes immediately from the left Ventricle of the Heart Agitated and Spirituous and with a brisk Impulse which forces out the Particles of the Blood at those Pores of the Arteries that they find Congruous to their Shape and Size and which answer to the several Parts that are to be nourished by Corpuscles so Qualified 'T were not Difficult if 't were Necessary to accumulate Instances to the same purposes with those already mentioned there being nothing more frequent in the Books of Anatomists and those that treat of the Physiological and Pathological parts of Physick than to draw Arguments as well Affirmative as Negative about the Use of the Parts of the Body from their Fitness or Unfitness or their greater or lesser Fitness to attain such Ends as are suppos'd to have been Design'd by Nature And indeed these Argumentations occur so frequently that I think there is less need of my Increasing them than of my Proceeding to give you a Caution about them which I shall do in the following Proposition PROP. III. IT is Rational from the Manifest Fitness of some things to Cosmical or Animal Ends or Vses to Infer that they were Fram'd or Ordain'd in reference thereunto by an Intelligent and Designing Agent Divers things have Incidentally been said in this Paper especially in the first Section of it and others may hereafter be Occasionally added that may justly be imploy'd against that part of the Epicurean Hypothesis which Ascribes the Origine of Things to Chance and Rejects the Interest of a Deity and the Designing of Ends in the Production and Management of Natural things But because I observe not without grief that of late years too many otherwise perhaps Ingenious Men have with the Innocent Opinions of Epicurus embrac'd those Irreligious ones wherein as I was saying the Deity and Providence are quite Excluded from having any Influence upon the Motions of Matter all whose Productions are refer'd
been at first Instituted by an Intelligent Cause And if it be Irrational to Ascribe the Excellent Fabrick of the Universe such as it now is and the Actions that have manifest Tendencies to Determinate Useful Ends To so Blind a Cause as Chance it will be rather More than Less Irrational to Ascribe to Chance the First Formation of the Universe of which the Present State of Things is but the Natural Consequence or Effect For it may indeed be plausibly said that in the Present State of Things the several Patts of the Universe are by the Contrivance of the Whole determin'd and thereby qualify'd to Attain their Ends. But it cannot be Rationally Pretended that at the First Framing of the World there was a Sufficiency in the Stupid Materials of It without any Particular Guidance of a most Wise Superintendent to Frame Bodies so Excellently Contriv'd and Fitted to their respective Ends. THE CONCLUSION THe Result of what has been hitherto Discours'd upon the Four Questions Propos'd at the Beginning of this Small Treatise amounts in short to this That all Consideration of Final Causes is not to be Banish'd from Natural Philosophy but that 't is rather Allowable and in some Cases Commendable to Observe and Argue from the Manifest Uses of Things that the Author of Nature Pre-ordain'd those Ends and Uses That the Sun Moon and other Coelestial Bodies excellently Declare the Power and Wisdom and consequently the Glory of God and were Some of Them among Other Purposes made to be Serviceable to Man. That from the Supposed Ends of Inanimate Bodies whether Coelestial or Sublunary 't is very Unsafe to Draw Arguments to Prove the Particular Nature of Those Bodies or the True System of the Universe That as to Animals and the more Perfect Sorts of Vegetables 't is Warrantable not Presumptuous to Say That such and such Parts were Pre-ordained to such and such Uses relating to the Welfare of the Animal or Plant itself or the Species it belongs to But that Such Arguments may easily Deceive if Those that Frame them are not very Cautious and Careful to avoid Mistaking among the various Ends that Nature may have in the Contrivance of an Animal's Body and the various Ways which she may successfully take to compass the same Ends. And That however a Naturalist who would Deserve that Name must not let the Search or Knowledge of Final Causes make him Neglect the Industrious Indagation of Efficients FINIS SOME UNCOMMON OBSERVATIONS ABOUT VITIATED SIGHT LONDON Printed for J. Taylor at the Ship in St. Paul's Church-Yard 1688. Advertisement THe Following Observations were not written with Intention that they Should be Annex'd to the Foregoing Essay but to Gratify a Philosophical Physician Which is the Reason why besides those things that are more purely Optical I thought fit to mention Some Others that might be either Vseful or Grateful to an Inquisitive Man of his Profession But having allow'd the Stationer to Expect that this Book tho' it have for Title but an Essay should not be of too inconsiderable a Bulk I made choice of these Papers among Several that lay by me to increase the Bigness of the Book Because that the Eyes being those Parts of the Bodies of Men and other Animals that I pitch'd upon in the Foregoing Treatise to Strengthen the Doctrine deliver'd in it about Final Causes it seem'd Suitable Enough to my Subject and Design to mention some Vncommon Things that related to Vision or the Organs of it that We may be invited both to Admire the Wisdom of God which to furnish Man with a Sense that requires the Concourse of so very many things has if I may so speak Crowded them into so Small an Engine as an Eye and to Celebrate his Goodness too which has been Display'd in that notwithstanding that the Eye is so very Compounded a Part and the Sight so easily Vitiated yet the most part of Men by far do from their Cradles to their Graves enjoy the Benefit and Comfort of so Necessary and Noble a Sense OBSERVATIONS ABOUT VITIATED SIGHT OBSERV I. EXamining a Gentleman that was already Almost Blind and fear'd to grow Altogether so about the Symptoms of his Disease which came with a Stroke upon his Head I found as I expected by his Answers that tho' he could not any thing well distinguish Objects of Other Colors Yet he could well perceive those that were White to be of That Colour Which confirms what I mention in the History of Colours concerning the great Quantity of Light that is Reflected by White Objects in comparison of those that are otherwise Colour'd And this Observation it Self was confirm'd by another Patient who tho' almost Blind could yet discern White Objects OBSERV II. I Knew a Gentleman that had a Cataract growing which when I look'd on his Eye in a lightsom place appear'd to cover almost just the Upper Part of the Pupil and tho' He were a Young Vigorous Person and the Weather was very Clear he could not well discern Men from Women cross the Street But this Gentlemans Misfortune came by a great Stroke he received on that Side of his Head where of heshew'd me the Scar which Circumstance I therefore Note because when no Outward Violence has been offer'd to the Eye it has been observed by a good Oculist and if I misremember not I have Seen an Instance of it That a small Part of the Pupil left uncover'd by the Cataract would serve for more Sight than the Gentleman enjoy'd In him likewise I had a further Confirmation of what I was lately Observing about the Conspicuousness of White Objects For tho' he could not as I was saying discern Men and Women that pass'd by on the other Side of the Street yet having once desired him to tell me if he could distinguish any Object there he told me that he could and that I might no longer Doubt of it when I asked him what he saw he said that it was a Woman that pass'd by with a White Apron which Apron he saw directly and therefore might easily conclude without distinctly seeing the Wearer that the Person that Wore it was a Woman OBSERV III. MEeting accidentally with a Man by Profession a Farrier whose Eyes look'd very odly I questioned him about his Distemper and found by his answers that he had had Cataracts in both his Eyes but either had them ill Couch'd or had not behaved himself orderly afterwards For there Seemed still to be ragged Films that cover'd considerable portions of his Pupils in so much that I somwhat wonder'd to see him go freely about as he did without requiring any body to help him so much as up or down Stairs and I hereupon asking him whether he were able to Read in a large Print he told me he was with the help of his Cataract Spectacles as they call them which I doubting of brought him a Book whose Title Page he was not able to Read this he Excus'd by saying that