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?