16 HISTORY OF 



present age, * and, to a certain degree, they must 

 be serviceable. But the worst of it is, that, as 

 speculations amuse the writer more than facts, 

 they may be often carried to an extravagant 

 length ; and that time may be spent in reasoning 

 upon nature, which might be more usefully em- 

 ployed in writing her history. 



Too much speculation in natural history is cer- 

 tainly wrong ; but there is a defect of an opposite 

 nature that does much more prejudice, namely, 

 that of silencing all inquiry, by alleging the bene- 

 fits we receive from a thing, instead of investi- 

 gating the cause of its production. If I inquire 

 how a mountain came to be formed, such a rea- 

 soner, enumerating its benefits, answers, because 

 God knew it would be useful. If I demand the 

 cause of an earthquake, he finds some good pro- 

 duced by it, and alleges that as the cause of its 

 explosion. Thus, such an inquirer has constant- 

 ly some ready reason for every appearance in 

 nature, which serves to swell his periods, and give 

 splendour to his declamation : every thing about 

 him is, on some account or other, declared to be 

 good ; and he thinks it presumption to scrutinize 

 into its defects, or endeavour to imagine how it 

 might be better. Such writers, and there are many 

 such, add very little to the advancement of know- 

 ledge; and it is finely remarked by Bacon, that the 

 investigation of final causes is a barren study,t 



* Buffon, Woodward, Burnet, Whiston, Kircher, Bourquat, Leibnitz, 

 Steno, Ray, &c. 



f Investigate causarum finalium sterilis cst, ct veluti virgo Deo dedica- 

 ta, nil parit 



