I] OF EFFICIENT AND FINAL CAUSES 7 



Still, all the whiLe, like warp and woof, mechanism and teleology 

 are interwoven together, and we must not cleave to the one nor 

 despise the other; for their union is rooted in the very nature of 

 totality. We may grow shy or weary of looking to a final cause 

 for an explanation of our phenomena ; but after we have accounted 

 for these on the plainest principles of mechanical causation it may 

 be useful and appropriate to see how the final cause would tally 

 wuth the other, and lead towards the same conclusion*. Maupertuis 

 had Uttle hking for the final cause, and shewed some sympathy with 

 Descartes in his repugnance to its appHcation to physical science. 

 But he found at last, taking the final and the efficient causes one with 

 another, that "I'harmonie de ces deux attributs est si parfaite que 

 sans doute tous les effets de la Nature se pourroient deduire de 

 chacun pris separement. Une Mecanique aveugle et necessaire suit 

 les dessins de I'lntelHgence la plus eclairee et la plus hbref." Boyle 

 also, the Father of Chemistry, wrote, in his latter years, a Disquisition 

 about the Final Causes of Natural Things: Wherein it is Inquired 

 Whether, And {if at all) With what Cautions, a Naturalist should admit 

 Themi He found "that all consideration of final cause is not to be 

 banished from- Natural Philosophy..."; but on the other hand 

 ''that the naturahst who would deserve that name must not let 

 the search and knowledge of final causes make him neglect the in- 

 dustrious indagation of efficients J." In our own day the philosopher 

 neither minimises nor unduly magnifies the mechanical aspect of 

 the Cosmos; nor need the naturahst either exaggerate • or be- 

 little the mechanical phenomena which are profoundly associated 

 with Life, and inseparable from our understanding of Growth and 

 Form. ^ 



* "S'il est dangereux de se servir des causes finales a priori pour trouver les lois 

 des phenomenes, 11 est peut-etre utile et il est au moins curieux de faire voir com- 

 ment le principe des causes finales s'accorde avec les lois des phenomenes, pourvu 

 qu'on commence par determiner ces lois d'apres les principes de mecanique clairs 

 et incontestables." (D'Aiembert, Art. Causes finales, Encyclopedie, ii, p. 789, 1751.) 

 I SeeJiis essay on the '''Accord des differentes lois de la Nature." 

 X Cf. also Leibniz {Discours de la Metaphysique: Lettres inedites, ed. de Careil, 

 1857, p. 354), "L'un et I'autre est bon, I'un et I'autre peut etre utile... et les 

 auteurs qui suivent ces deux routes differentes ne devraient pas se maltraiter." 

 Or again in the Monadologie, "Les ames agissent selon les causes finales. ... Les 

 corps agissent selon les lois des causes efficientes ou des mouveraents. Et les 

 deux regnes, celui des causes efficientes et des causes finales sont harmonieux 

 entre eux." 



