DIFFERE NTS Y STEMS. 69 



the Sceptics have fallen. Their falfe fuppofiiions 

 have obfcured the natural light of truth, bewil- 

 dered the reafoning faculties of men, and retard- 

 ed the progrefs of philofophy. 



Final caufes are employed as a fecond prin- 

 ciple by Plato and other theorifts. This prin- 

 ciple has even been adopted by the vulgar, and 

 by fome modern philofophers. A moment's re- 

 flexion, however, will be fufficient to reduce 

 this principle to its proper value. To fay that 

 light exifts becaufe we have eyes, and that founds 

 exift becaufe we have ears; or to fay that we 

 have eyes and ears, becaufe light and founds 

 exift ; is not this precifely the fame thing ? or, 

 rather, are we any wifer by this kind of reafon- 

 ing? Will we ever make any difcoveries by fuch 

 a mode of explication ? Is it not apparent, that 

 final caufes are only arbitrary relations and 

 moral abftradiions, which ought to have lefs in- 

 fluence than abftradiions in metaphyfics, becaufe 

 the origin of the former is lefs noble and worie 

 imagined? And, though Leibnitz has endeavour- 

 ed to give an elevation to final caufes, under the 

 appellation of the reafonablenefs and eternal fit- 

 nefs of things, \jaifon fiiffifante\ and Plato has 

 reprelented them under the flattering pidure of 

 abfolute perfedion; all thefe efforts are infuflir 

 cient to cover their native infignificance and 

 precarioufnefs. Arc we better inftruded in the 

 operations of Nature, becaufe we are told that 

 pothing exifts without a rcafon, or that every 



E 3 thing 



