FINAL CAUSES. 349 



nothing more than the expression of the igno- 

 rance in which we are of the real causes." 



We may observe that we have endeavoured to 

 give a very different, and, as we believe, a far 

 truer view of the effect which philosophy has 

 produced on our knowledge of final causes. We 

 have shown, we trust, that the notion of design 

 and end is transferred by the researches of 

 science, not from the domain of our knowledge 

 to that of our ignorance, but merely from the 

 region of facts to that of laws. We hold that, in 

 this form, final causes in the atmosphere are 

 still to be conceived to obtain, no less than in an 

 earlier state of meteorological knowledge ; and 

 that Newton was right, when he believed that 

 he had established their reality in the solar sys- 

 tem, not expelled them from it. 



But our more peculiar business at present is 

 to observe that Laplace himself, in describing 

 the arrangements by which the stability of the 

 solar system is secured, uses language which 

 shows how irresistibly these arrangements sug- 

 gest an adaptation to its preservation as an end. 

 If in his expressions we were to substitute the 

 Deity for the abstraction " nature" which he 

 employs, his reflexion would coincide with that 

 which the most religious philosopher would en- 

 tertain. " It seems that ' God ' has ordered 

 everything in the heavens to ensure the duration 



