E 139.4 
tendency to corruption is increafed 
by the increafe of heat. 
Though we are too much accuf- 
tomed to look upon the moft obvyi- 
ous operations of nature with a kind 
of unconcern and indifference, fuch 
as, for. inftance, the vegetation of 
plants; yet we cannot look with fe 
much indifference upon the final 
caufes of thofe every where obvious 
{cenes when we difcover them; for 
they do not fo much affect the or- 
gans of our fight and other external 
fenfes, as they do our underfta se 
ing, our reafon, our judgment ; : by 
which only we are fuperior to all 
other living animals. . The confi- 
deration of final caufes gives us to 
underftand that this great univer/e 
is not the offspring of chance, not 
coéval with the beginning of time, 
or of an eternal origin; but that.it 
