FINAL CAUSES. 31 



feet, are concerned merely with the natural powers of mat- 

 ter. They are the laws that regulate the succession of pheno- 

 mena purely physical in all their stages. These phenome- 

 na consist in changes among material particles, which are 

 either of a meclianical or chemical nature; or in the affec- 

 tions of imponderable pliysical agents, such as heat, light-, 

 electricity, and magnetism; and they include also the pheno- 

 mena that take place in organized bodies, and which are re- 

 ferrible to the operation of certain physical powers, apper- 

 taining to particular structures, such as muscular contraction 

 and nervous irritation; phenomena which, as we shall after- 

 wards find, are not reducible to any of the former laws, but 

 are peculiar to the living state. The second class of laws 

 comprise those which are founded on the relation of means 

 to an end; and which are usually denominated Jifia I causes. 

 They involve the operations of mind, in conjunction with 

 those of matter. They presuppose intention or design; a 

 supposition which implies intelligence, thought, motives, vo- 

 lition, — particular purposes to be answered, requiring the 

 agency of powers and of instruments adapted to the produc- 

 tion of the intended efiects: — the knowledge of the proper- 

 ties of matter, the selection and choice of particular means, 

 and the power of employing them in an effective manner. 

 These purposes may themselves be subservient to more ge- 

 neral objects, and these objects again subordinate to remoter 

 ends: so that the whole shall comprehend a systematic plan 

 of operations, conducive, on the most enlarged views, to ul- 

 timate and general utility. 



The study of these final causes is. In some measure, forced 

 upon our attention by even the most superficial survey of 

 nature. It is impossible not to recognise the character of 

 intention, which is so indelibly impressed upon every part 

 of the structure both of vegetable and animal beings, and 

 which marks the whole series of phenomena connected 

 with their history. Microscopic observations teach us 

 that the embryo of an organic being contains within it- 

 self the rudiments of the future vegetable or animal struc- 



