78 ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. Book II. 



the un'iverfe to be a fyftcm as perfe£t as Divine intelligence can 

 make it, there miift neceffarily be many connexions and dependen- 

 cies of parts which we cannot fee. We muft, therefore, be content- 

 ed to difcover as much as we can of final caufes ; and from what 

 we know, we muft argue to what we do not know. Thofe who re- 

 quire to know the caufes of every thing in the univerfe, and infill 

 to fee the principles of all things through their glaftes or in their 

 alembecks, I would advife to renounce the ftudy of natural philofo- 

 phy and metaphyfics, comforting themfelves with the thought, that 

 thefe purfuits are out of the reach of human underftanding, as they 

 certainly are of theirs. I fhould be forry, however, if they gave over 

 their experiments, by which they may difcover many things that the 

 philofopher can make good ufe of, though they cannot. 



CHAP.. 



