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
A DISQUISITION ABOUT THE Final Causes OF NATVRAL THINGS Wherein it is Inquir'd Whether And if at all With what Cautions a Naturalist should admit Them By T.H. R. B. Fellow of the Royal Society To which are Subjoyn'd by way of APPENDIX SOME Vncommon Observations ABOUT VITIATED SIGHT By the same AVTHOR LONDON Printed by H. C. for Iohn Taylor at the Ship in St. Paul's Church-Yard 1688. THE PREFACE THere are not many Subjects in the whole compass of Natural Philosophy that better deserve to be Inquired into by Christian Philosophizers than That which is Discours'd of in the following Essay For Certainly it becomes such Men to have Curiosity enough to Try at least Whether it can be Discover'd that there are any Knowable Final Causes to be Consider'd in the Works of Nature Since if we neglect this Inquiry we live in danger of being Ungrateful in Overlooking those Uses of Things that may give us Just Cause of Admiring and Thanking the Author of them and of Losing the Benefits relating as well to Philosophy as Piety that the Knowledge of them may afford us And if there be no such Things we are more than in danger to Mispend our Labor and Industry in fruitless Searching for such Things as are not to be Found And an Inqury of this kind is now the more Seasonable because two of the Chief Sects of the modern Philosophizers do both of them though upon differing Grounds deny that the Naturalist ought at all to trouble or busie himself about Final Causes For Epicurus * Illud in his rebus vitum vehementer inesto Effugere illorumque Errorem praemeditâ—â—us Lumina qui faciunt Oculorum clara Craeata Prospicere ut possimus Lucr. de rer â—â—t lib. IV. sect 824. and most of his Followers for I except some few late ones especially the Learned Gassendus Banish the Consideration of the Ends of Things because the World being according to them made by Chance no Ends of any Thing can be suppos'd to have been intended And on the contrary * Ita denique nullas unquam rationes circa res naturales a fine quem Deus aut Natura in iis faciendis sibi proposuit desumemus qui non tantum nobis debemus arrogare ut ejus consiliorum participes esse putemus Cartesius Princip Philosop Parte prima Artic. 28. Monsieur Des Cartes and most of his Followers suppose all the Ends of God in Things Corporeal to be so Sublime that 't were Presumption in Man to think his Reason can extend to Discover them So that according to these Opposite Sects 't is either Impertinent for Us to Seek after Final Causes or Presumptuous to think We may Find Them. Wherefore I hope I shall be Excus'd if having been engag'd by some Sollicitations wherewith 't is needless to trouble the Reader I did not Decline to Try what the Bare but Attentive Consideration of the Subject would Suggest to My Own Thoughts And tho' 't was easie to Foresee by this means my Friend might miss of receiving in my Essay divers things that occurr'd not to Me yet I consider'd on the other side that such things would notwithstanding my Silence be found in the Authors that deliver'd them and 't was very possible that by the Course I took I might light upon some Thoughts that I should have miss'd if I had prepossess'd my Mind with the Opinions of Others which I was the less Tempted to do because an easie prospect of my Theme suffic'd to let me see I was like to have the Epicureans and Cartesians for my Adersaries not my Assistants And for the School-Philosophers the very Slight Account that their Master Aristotle gives of One of my Four Questions for of the rest as far as I remember He says little or nothing gave me small hopes of being Aided by Them especiaily since in This as in many Other Questions they proceed upon Grounds that I cannot Assent to Anatomists indeed and some Physicians have done very laudably upon the Uses of the Parts of the Human Body which I take this Occasion to Declare that it may not be Suspected that I do in the least Undervalue their happy Industry because I Transcribe not Passages out of their Books The Reasons of which Omission are not only That I had not any one Book of Anatomy at hand when I was Writing but That the Uses of the Parts of Man's Body related but to a small Part of my Discourse to make which more Comprehensive I took in the Consideration of more General Questions besides that which was controverted between Aristotle and the Ancienter Philosophers who disputed how Bodies that were devoid of Knowledg could Act for Ends. Those that Relish no Books in Natural Philosophy but such as abound in Experiments are seasonably Advertis'd that I do not Invite Them to Read this Treatise wherein I thought it much more Suitable to the Nature of my Subject and Design to declare the Works of God than of Men and consequently to Deliver rather Observations than Artificial Experiments And even of the Former of these tho' perhaps most Readers may find in the ensuing Discourse Several that they have not met with in Classic Authors yet I shall freely acknowledge that upon the Review I made of what I writ I find tho' too Late to Repair the Omission that I have left several Things unmentioned that would have been very pertinent to my Subject which may I hope be more easily Excus'd because the Body of the folfowing Disquisition having been Written many years ago and Thrown by upon the Death of the * Mr. Henry Oldenburgh Secretary of the Royal Society Gentleman that Press'd me for it I could not then take notice of those many Discoveries in Anatomy and other Parts of Physiology that have since been happily made But perhaps some will think I may have more need to Excuse the Largeness of Some Parts of the following Treatise compar'd with the Others And I should rather Grant than Answer the Objection if I could not Alledge that the Contagious Boldness of some Baptiz'd Epicureans Engag'd me to dwell much longer on the Third Proposition of the Fourth Section than I at first Intended And on the other hand the Cartesian Opinion having of late made it Requisite to Handle the formerly Difficult Question about the Consideration of Final Causes after a New Manner I thought it Unfit Lightly to Pass over the Paradox Maintain'd by so Great a Man and Judg'd it Expedient in Some Places what I could not do without Enlarging to Propose Thoughts adjusted to to the Present State of Things in this Affair in the Management of which I have had so much more Regard to some Other Things than to the Symmetry of the Parts whereof this Tract consists that I will not say That I fear I have in It but Thrown together Materials for a Just Discourse on my Subject since to Do so was the Main Thing I Intended And if the Materials
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
Naturalists tends much to weaken as is elsewhere noted if not quite to deprive us of one of the best and most successful Arguments to convince Men that there is a God and that they ought to Admire Praise and Thank him I think it my duty to prefer an important truth before my respect to any Man how eminent soever that opposes it and to consider more the Glory of the great Author of Nature than the Reputation of any one of Her Interpreters And to strengthen what I have been saying give me leave to mind you more expresly here of what I have elsewhere Intimated viz. That the excellent Contrivance of the great System of the World and especially the curious Fabrick of the Bodies of Animals and the Uses of their Sensories and other parts have been the great Motives that in all Ages and Nations induc'd Philosophers to acknowledge a Deity as the Author of these admirable Structures and that the Noblest and most Intelligent Praises that have been paid Him by the Priests of Nature have been occasion'd and indited by the Transcending Admiration which the attentive Contemplation of the Fabrick of the Universe and of the curious Structures of Living Creatures justly produc'd in them And therefore it seems injurious to God as well as unwarrantable in it self to banish from Natural Philosophy the Consideration of Final Causes from which chiefly if not only I cannot but think tho' some Learned Men do otherwise that God must reap the Honour that is due to those glorious Attributes his Wisdom and his Goodness And I confess I somewhat wonder that the Cartesians who have generally and some of them skilfully maintain'd the Existence of a Deity should endeavour to make Men throw away an Argument which the Experience of all Ages shews to have been the most Successful and in some Cases the only prevalent one to establish among Philosophers the Belief and Veneration of God. I know the Cartesians say That their Master has demonstrated the Existence of a God by the Innate Idea that Men have of a Being infinitely perfect who left it upon the mind of Man as the mark of an Artist imprest upon his Work And also that they ascribe to God the having made Matter out of nothing and alone put it into Motion which sufficiently argue the Immensity of his Power But tho' I would by no means weaken the Argument drawn from the Inbred Notion of God since I know that divers Learned Men have Acquiesc'd in it yet on the other side I see not why we may not reasonably think that God who as themselves confess has been pleas'd to take care Men should acknowledge Him may also have provided for the securing of a Truth of so great Consequence by stamping Characters or leaving Impresses that Men may know his Wisdom and Goodness by as well without upon the World as within upon the Mind The bare Speculation of the Fabrick of the World without considering any part of it as destinated to certain or determinate Uses may still leave Men unconvinc'd that there is any Intelligent Wise and Provident Author and Disposer of Things Since we see generally the Aristotelians before some of them were better Instructed by the Christian Religion did notwithstanding the Extent Symmetry and Beauty of the World believe it to have been Eternal And tho' They whatever their Master thought did not believe it to have been Created by God yet because they asserted that Animals Plants c. act for Ends they were oblig'd to acknowledge a Provident and Powerful Being that maintain'd and govern'd the Universe which they call'd Nature Tho' they too often dangerously mistook by sometimes confounding this Being with God himself and at other times speaking of it as Co-ordinate with him as in that famous Axiom of Aristotle Deus Natura nihil faciunt frusta I acknowledge therefore that as I set a just value upon the Cartesian Proof of God's Existence so I see no reason why we should disfurnish our selves of any other strong Argument to prove so noble and important a Truth especially since the Cartesian way of considering the World is very proper indeed to shew the Greatness of God's Power but not like the way I plead for to manifest that of his Wisdom and Beneficence For whereas a Cartesian does but shew that God is admirably Wise upon the supposition of his Existence in our way the same thing is manifested by the Effect of a Wisdom as well as Power that cannot reasonably be ascribed to any other than a most intelligent and potent Being So that by This way Men may be brought upon the same account both to acknowledge God to admire Him and to thank Him. SECT II. TO give you now my thoughts of the second Question viz. Whether we may consider Final Causes in all sorts of Bodies or only in some peculiarly Qualify'd Ones I must divide Natural Bodies into Animate and Inanimate The former of which Terms I here take in the larger sense of those who under it comprehend not only Animals but Vegetables tho' I shall not disdainfully reject the Opinion of those Learned Men that are unwilling to allow Plants a soul or life at least as properly so call'd as that which is confessedly granted to Animals Of the Inanimate Bodies of the Universe the Noblest and those which on this occasion deserve chiefly to be considered are the Sun Planets and other Coelestial Bodies For when Men saw those vast and luminous Globes and especially the Sun move so constantly and so regularly about the Earth and diffuse on it Light and Heat and by their various Revolutions produce day and night Summer and Winter and the Vicissitudes of Seasons that are so opportune for the Inhabitants of the Earth The observers I say of all this concluded both that these Motions were guided by some Divine Being and that they were design'd for the benefit of Man Whether this be a demonstrative Collection I shall not now debate but I see not why it may not have thus much of Probability in it that in case a Man shall think that the Fabrick of the Coelestial parts of the World was the curious Production of an Intelligent and Divine Agent the regular Phaenomena of the Heavens will not contradict him since there is nothing in that Fabrick that misbecomes a Divine Author and the Motions and Operations of the Sun and Stars are not such but that they will allow us to think that among other purposes they were made to Illuminate the Terrestrial Globe and bring Heat and other Benefits to the Inhabitants of it So that the Contemplation of the Heavens which so manifestly declare the Glory of God Psal 19.1 may justly excite Men both to admire his Power and Wisdom in them and to return him Thanks and Praises for the great Benefits that accrue to us by them But now on the other side it may be said that in bodies Inanimate whether the portions of Matter they consist of
aperture is almost perpetually changing it's bigness according to the differing degrees of Light that the Eye chances from time to time to be expos'd to And therefore one would not think but that whilst this hole remains open it performs well enough it's part which is to give admission to the Incident beams of Light whether direct or reflected And yet I lately saw and discours'd with a woman who after a Feaver was not able to debate the Pupils of her eyes as formerly and tho' they were so very little narrower then ordinary that I should scarce have taken more notice that 't was at all so if she had not told me of it yet she complain'd she had thereby almost lost her sight seeing Objects in certain Lights but very dimly and imperfectly And tho' the Praeternatural constriction of the Pupil be not a frequent distemper yet t is not so rare but that Physitians have given it a place among the Stated diseases of the eye And on the other side tho' it appear by what hath been newly related that a competent wideness of the Pupil is requisite to clear and distinct Vision yet if it's wideness exceed due Limits there is produced that distemper that is call'd Dilatatio pupillae which is worse then the former because it oftentimes deprives the Patient almost totally of his sight And tho' it may seem but a slight circumstance that the transparent coats of the eye should be devoid of colour and of as little moment that the cornea should be very smooth provided it be transparent yet when either of these circumstances is wanting the sight may be much vitiated as we see that in the Yellow-Jaundies when 't is come to a high degree the adventitious Tincture wherewith the Eye is Imbued makes men think they see a yellowness in many objects to which that colour does not belong And I know an Ingenious Gentleman who having had a small pustula excited and broken upon the Cornea tho' the eye have been long whole yet a very little Inequality or depression that still remains upon the Surface of the Transparent Cornea does so affect him that tho' he can read well in a Room yet when he comes into the open fields or the streets he for a pretty while as himself has particularly complain'd to me thinks many of the Objects he looks on very Glareing and sees many others as men do stones at the bottom of a Brook or running water which I impute to the want of Uniformity in the refraction of those reflected beams of Light that fall upon the Cornea whose surface is not so smooth and equal as it should be To give some further Proof that the Eye was made with design I shall here take notice of an observation or two that do not occurr in the dissection of a human Eye and therefore are not wont to be mentioned by Anatomists I have observed in Frogs as I presume some others also may have done that besides those parts of the Eye which they have in common with Men Dogs Cats and the most part of other Animals They have a peculiar whether membrane or Cartilage or both which ordinarily is not perceived wherewith they can at pleasure cover the Eye without too much hindering the sight because this membrane is as well Transparent as strong so that it may pass for a kind of moveable Cornea and if I may so call it a kind of false-scabord to to the Eye In furnishing frogs with this strong Membrane the providence of Nature seems to be conspicuous For they being Amphibious Animals design'd to pass their lives in watery places which for the most part abound with Sedges and other plants endowed with sharp Edges or points and the progressive motion of this Animal being to be made not by walking but by leaping if his Eyes were not provided of such a sheath as I have been mentioning he must either shut his Eyes and so leap blindly and by consequence dangerously or by leaving them open must run a venture to have the Corneae cut prickt or otherwise offended by the edges or points of the Plants or what may fall from them upon the Animals Eye whereas this Membrane as was said is like a kind of Spectacle that covers the Eye without taking away the sight and as soon as the need of imploying it is past the Animal at pleasure withdraws it into a little Cell where it Rests out of the way till there be occasion to use it again This you may see if you apply the point of a pin or a Pen or any such sharp thing to the Eye of a frog whilst you hold his head steady for to screen his Eye he will presently cover it at least for the greatest part with this Membrane which when the danger is over he will again withdraw And because many if not most sorts of Birds are wont or destinated to fly as more would do if not kept tame among the Branches of Trees and Bushes least the Prickles Twigs Leaves or other parts should wound or offend their Eye Nature hath given them likewise such another kind of horny Membrane as we have been mentioning in frogs 'T is known that Men and the generality of Four-footed Beasts and of Birds have several Muscles belenging to their Eyes by the help of which Muscles they can turn them this way or that way at pleasure and so can obvert the Organ of Sense to the Object whether it be placed on the right hand or the left or above or beneath the Eye But Nature having not given that Mobility to the Eyes of Flys the reason whereof I shall not now stay to consider she hath in recompence furnish'd them with a multitude of little protuberant parts finely rang'd upon the convex of their large and Protuberant Eyes So that by means of the number of these little Studs if I may so call them many beams of Light that rebound from Objects placed on either hand or above or beneath the level of the Eye fall conveniently enough upon that Organ to make the Objects they come from visible to the Animal Which you will the more easily believe if you contemplate as I have often done with great pleasure even the Eye of an ordinary Flesh-Fly for Bees and other greater Insects have immoveable Eyes too but I find them not so pretty in a good Microscope and a clear Day For you may reckon some hundreds of these little round Protuberances curiously rang'd on the Convexity of a single Eye But perhaps some whose partiality for Chance makes them willing to ascribe the structures of Animals rather to That then to a designing Cause will make them draw an Objection fit to be here obviated against our Doctrine from what we have observ'd of the difference between Human and other Eyes Since they will pretend that all Organs of Sight ought to be conform'd to those of Men as those that are the best and most perfect 'T is true that Man
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
Fluid Ones which are to be found in the Vessels and Cavities of a Dead Body when Dissected tho' never so Skilfully For I take the Body of a Living Man to be a very Compounded Engine such as Mechanicians would call Hydraulico-Pneumatical Many of whose Functions if not the Chiefest are perform'd not by the Blood and other Visible Fluids barely as they are Liquors but partly by their Circulating and other Motions and partly by a very Agile and Invisible sort of Fluids call'd Spirits Vital and Animal and partly perhaps as I have sometimes gues'd by little Springy Particles and perhaps too by somewhat that may be call'd the Vital Portion of the Air and by Things Analogous to Local Ferments the Important Operations of all which are wont to Cease with Life and the Agents themselves are not to be Discern'd in a Dead Body So that besides those Manifest Uses which the Visible Fabrick of the Engine may suggest to an Anatomist there may be Chymical Uses if I may so call them of some Parts that serve for the Elaboration of Spirits and other Fluids Which Uses as 't was formerly Observ'd and yet ought to be Inculcated are not suggested to the Anatomists as Such by the Inspection of the Structure of the Parts but to Discern them may require no mean Skill in Spagyrical Principles and Operations Such Considerations as the foregoing make me think it more difficult than many do to determin with any certainty the Main Use of divers Particular Parts for in some Others it seems manifest enough especially if it be done with the Exclusion of Other Uses Nor is it enough to Secure us that we know the Chief Function and End of a Part to Know that it is contrived for such a Purpose For upon the things I have lately represented One may ground this Answer that this Fitness hinders not but that the Primary Use of the Part may be another as not Anatomical but Chymical or Vice Versa more Conducive to the General Welfare of the Animal or else to the Cosmical Ends of Nature And it ought not to seem Strange that some Pieces of Workmanship that consist of many Parts all of them Curiously Contriv'd may by One Learned Man be guess'd to be Intended for This Use and by Others for That Use and yet Both these Uses may be worthy of the Artificer When some very Politick Prince does some Great Thing without declaring Why the Guesses of the States Men are often very differing whilst yet none of them ascribe to Him a Design mis-becoming a Wise Man. And so when a Learned Author Expresses himself as sometimes it happens Ambiguously tho' One Reader Interprets his words to This Sense and Another to That yet Both the Senses pitch'd on may fairly comport with the Context and the main Scope of the Writer These things I say because I would by no means Disparage the Wisdom of Nature by proposing the Difficulties I have hitherto mentioned tho' I confess that upon the account of These and some Others I look upon many of the Arguments that several Authors have made bold to draw from Final Causes but as Conjectural Things And in divers Cases I allow what is suggested to me upon the Supposition of the Intended Uses of Particular Parts rather as good Hints to Excite and give some Aim to a Severer Inquiry than as safe Grounds to build Physical Conclusions on PROP. V. I come now to the Last Caution I would recommend to you about the Consideration of Final Causes and I shall present it you in this Proposition That the Naturalist should not suffer the Search or the Discovery of a Final Cause of Nature's Works to make him Vndervalue or Neglect the studious Indagation of their Efficient Causes 'T Is true that to Inquire To what Purpose Nature would have such or such Effects produc'd is a Curiosity worthy of a Rational Creature upon the score of his being so But this is not the proper Task of a Naturalist whose Work as he is Such is not so much to Discover why as how Particular Effects are Produc'd A Country-Fellow here in England knows something of a Watch because he is able to tell you that 't is an Instrument that an Artificer made to Measure Time by and That is more than every American Savage would be able to tell you and more than those Civiliz'd Chineses knew that took the first Watch the Jesuit brought thither for a Living Creature But the English Countryman that knows no more of a Watch than that 't was made to shew the Hour of the Day does very little understand the Nature of It. And whereas the two Scopes that Men are wont to Aim at in the Study of Physicks are to Understand how and after what manner Nature Produces the Phaenomenon we Contemplate and in case it be Imitable by Us how We may if Occasion require Produce the Like Effect or come as Near it as may be These Ends cannot be attained by the bare Knowledg of the Final Causes of Things nor of the General Efficient But to Answer those Aims we must know the Particular Efficients and the Manner and Progress of their Operating and what Dispositions they either Find or Produce in the Matter they work upon as He that would throughly understand the Nature of a Watch must not rest satisfied with knowing in General that a Man Made it and that he Made it for such Uses but he must Particularly know of what Materials the Spring the Wheels the String or Chain and the Ballance are made He must know the Number of the Wheels their Bigness their Shape their Situation and Connexion in the Engine and after what manner One Part Moves the Other in the whole Series of Motions from the Expansive Eadeavour of the Spring to the Motion of the Index that Points at the Hours And much more must a Mechanician know this if he means to be able to Make a Watch Himself or Give sufficient Instructions to Another Man that is more Handy to do it for him In short the Neglect of Efficient Causes would render Physiology Useless But the studious Indagation of them will not Prejudice the Contemplation of Final Causes For since 't is Truly said if it be rightly understood that Opus Naturae est opus Intelligentiae the Wise Author of Nature has so excellently Contriv'd the Universe that the more Clearly and Particularly we Discern how Congruous the Means are to the Ends to be obtain'd by them the more Plainly we Discern the Admirable Wisdom of the Omniscient Author of Things of whom it is Truly said by a Prophet that He is Wonderful in Counsel Isa 20.29 and Excellent in Working Nor will the Sufficiency of the Intermediate Causes make it needless to admit a First and Supreme Cause Since to inculcate on this Occasion what I more fully deliver in another Paper That Order of Things by vertue of which these Means become sufficient to such Ends must have
Physicks but by the common grounds of Reason Tho' Monsieur Des-Cartes does C'est une chose qui de soy est manifeste que nous ne pouvons connoistre les fins de Dieu si luy mesme ne nous les revele Et eâ—core qu'il soit vray en Morale en egard à nous autres hommes quetoutes choses ont este faites pour la gloire de Dieu à cause que les hommes sont obligez de louer Dieu pour tous ses ouvrages qu'on puisse aussi dire que le soleil à este fait pour nous eclairer pour ce que nous experimentons que le soleil en effet nous eclaire ce seroit toutes fois une chose puerile absurde d'assurer en Metaphysique que Dieu à la facon d'un homme superbe n'auroit point eu d'autre fin en bastissant le Monde que celle destre louè par les hommes qu'il n'auroit creè le soleil qui est plusieurs fois plus grand que la Terre à autre dessein que d'eclairer l'homme qui n'en occupe qu'une tres-petite partie as I have formerly shown speak very Dogmatically and Universally against Mens endeavouring or pretending to know any Final Causes in Natural things for which Reason I have as well as the generality of his other Readers and even his Disciples look'd upon the Sense of those positive Expressions as containing his Opinion yet since I writ the foregoing part of this Treatise I lighted on a Passage of his wherein he seems to speak more cautiously or reservedly opposing His Reasoning to Their Opinion who teach that God hath no other End in making the World but that of being prais'd by Men. But in that short Discourse whereof this Passage is a part there are two or three other things wherein I cannot Acquiesce As first that 't is Self-evident that we cannot know the Ends of God unless he Himself reveal them to us he must mean in a Supernatural way if he will not speak impertinently For what he says to be evident of it self is not at all so to the generality of Mankind and even of Philosophers and therefore I think it ought not to be barely pronounc'd but if it can be should be prov'd And next he does not show how we are oblig'd to praise God for his Works if He had no intention to have us do so or that we should discover any of the Ends for which He made them If a judicious Man should see a great Book written in some Indian Language which he is utterly a Stranger to and should know nothing of it but that 't was made by a very Intelligent Physician He might indeed conclude that the Work was not made by chance but would have no means to be convinc'd by the Inspection of the Book it self that it was compos'd with great Skill and Kindness and deserv'd his Praise and Thanks Since he could not know any of the particular Ends to which the several Chapters of it were destinated nor consequently discover how skilfully they were fitted to reach such Ends. What Des-Cartes says that 't is childish and absurd to think that God had created the Sun which is many times bigger than the Earth only to afford Light to Man who is but a very small part of It is somewhat invidiously propos'd there being few able Writers that confine the Utility of the Sun directly to the affording Light to Man and the littleness of his Bulk ought not to make it thought absurd that God may have had an especial Eye to his Welfare in framing that bright Globe since not only for ought appears to us that most excellent Engine of Mans Body is a more admirable thing than the Sun but the rational and immortal Soul that resides in it is incomparably more noble than a thousand Masses of brute Matter and that not so much as Organiz'd can be justly reputed as will be hereafter more fully declared And since in this very Discourse the accute Author of it confesses that we may know the ends of God's Corporeal Works if He reveal them to us a Christian Philosopher may be allow'd to think the Sun was made among other purposes to inlighten the Earth and for the use of Man since the Scripture teaches us that not only the Sun and Moon but the Stars of the Firmament which Des-Cartes not improbably thinks to be so many Suns were made to give Light to the Earth and were divided to all the Nations that inhabit it Deut. 4.19 Perhaps it were not rash to add that I see not why the Belief that a Man may know some of God's Ends in things Corporeal should more derogate from our Veneration of his Wisdom than to think we know some of his Ends in other Matters of which the Scripture furnishes us with a multitude of Instances as particularly that of Job sacrificing for his Friends and the declar'd Uses of the Vrim and Thumim Since God may if He pleases declare Truths to Men and instruct them by his Creatures and his Actions as well as by his Words As when He taught Noah by the Rain-bow and Jonah by a Gourd and a Worm and regulated the Incampment of the Israelites by the guidance of a Cloud and a fiery Pillar Lastly whereas Monsieur Des-Cartes objects that those he dissents from talk as if they look'd upon God as a proud Man who design'd his Works only to be prais'd for them I know not whether in this place he speaks so cautiously and reverently of God as he ought and elsewhere is wont to do For as Humility tho' it be a Vertue in Men is extreamly remote from being any of Gods Perfections so That may be pride in a Man who is but a Creature imperfect dependent and hath nothing that he has not receiv'd which would be none at all in God who is uncapable of Vice and who may if he please justly propose to himself His own Glory for one of his Ends and both require and delight to be prais'd by Men for his Works since he is most worthy of all praise and 't is their duty and reasonable service which he is graciously pleas'd to approve of to pay it Him. 'T is not without trouble that I find my self oblig'd by the exigency of my design so much to oppose in several places of this present Discourse some Sentiments of Mr. Des-Cartes for whom otherwise I have a great esteem and from whom I am not forward to dissent And this I the rather declare to you because I am not at all of Their mind that think Mr. Des-Cartes a favourer of Atheism which to my apprehension would subvert the very foundation of those Tenents of Mechanical Philosophy that are particularly his But judging that his Doctrine at least as it is understood by several of his Followers as well as his Adversaries about the rejection of Final Causes from the consideration of