FINAL CAUSES. 355 



This passage exhibits, we conceive, that com- 

 bination of feelings which ought to mark the 

 character of the religious natural philosopher; 

 an earnest piety ready to draw nutriment from 

 the contemplation of established physical truths ; 

 joined with a philosophical caution, which is not 

 seduced by the anticipation of such contem- 

 plations, to pervert the strict course of physical 

 enquiry. 



It is precisely through this philosophical care 

 and scrupulousness that our views of final causes 

 acquire their force and value as aids to religion. 

 The object of such views is not to lead us to 

 physical truth, but to connect such truth, ob- 

 tained by its proper processes and methods, with 

 our views of God, the master of the universe, 

 through those laws and relations which are thus 

 placed beyond dispute. 



Bacon's comparison of final causes to the 

 vestal virgins is one of those poignant sayings, 

 so frequent in his writings, which it is not easy 

 to forget. " Like them," he says, " they are dedi- 

 cated to God, and are barren." But to any one 

 who reads his work it will appear in what spirit 

 this was meant. " Not because those final 

 causes are not true and worthy to be inquired, 

 being kept within their own province." (Of 

 the Advancement of Learning, b. ii. p. 142.) 

 If he had had occasion to develope his simile, 

 full of latent meaning as his similes so often are, 



