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 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, ‘twill 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.