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.
‘TIs 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 ‘tis 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 ‘tis 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 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.