and Gravitation. Yet I am of the opinion that there were other principles concurring to the formation of the world, befides gravitation and the known laws of motion, which I think it left to themselves would never produce any tolerable or habitable world. But fuppofing the efficient caufe of Mountains unknown or impoffible to be affigned; yet ftill there remains the final cause to be enquired into, which will do as well for our purpose. For if I prove them to be as ufeful to the inhabitants of the primitive earth, as they are now to us, and that in our present ftate they are abfolutely neceffary, not only for our well being, but also for our bare fubfiftance; I think from thence it will demonftratively follow that they were in the primitive earth as well as in ours. And therefore the groundless affertion of the Theorist that the face of the Antediluvian earth was fmooth regular and uniform, is as falfe as 'tis bold and daring. I know there is a fort of men in this age who have excluded all final caufes from the confideration of a Philofopher, as being unworthy of his enquiry, fuppofing his buliness is only to find out the true formal and efficient causes of all things, and not to concern himself with the defign of nature, or the great end for which the God of Nature made any thing. But indeed thefe men have been fo unhappy in their fearches, that I dare boldly boldly fay they have not fo much as difcovered the true, real and efficient caufe of any one of the Phænomena which was not known and better explain'd before; tho' they have pretended to lay open the effences and formal caufes of all things, and to fhew the manner, how the Univerfe was formed from the principles of Matter and Motion. But whatever they pretend, certain it is, that final causes are worthy of the confidera tion of all men, and much more of a Philofopher. By them we are led into the admiration of the wisdom of God, and discover his care and providence over the world; By them we demonftrate that the World could never be made by chance; but it must be a being of infinite wisdom that form'd it for fuch various ufes as are to be feen in it. And therefore by all wife and confidering men they are much more to be valued than efficient caufes, if they could be discovered; which only tell us how the thing was perform'd, and not the ufe for which it was defign'd. "Tis true indeed, it is not easy to dif cover the use of every thing in the Universe; but from the admirable contrivance of those things, the ufes of which we do know, and from the infinite wifdom of God, it may be eafily concluded, that every thing in nature has its ufe, and is in fome manner ferviceable to the good of the whole. They They who defire to fee more concerning the usefulness of final caufes, may confult Mr. Boyle of final caufes, Mr. Ray's wisdom of God in the works of the Creation, and fome late ingenious effays upon the nature and evidence of faith by Dr. Cockburn. I must confefs I cannot but think it a ftrange and prefuming boldness in the Theorift to affert, that Mountains are plac'd in no order one with another, that can either refpect ufe or beauty and that if they are fingly confider'd they do not confift of any proportion of parts, that is referable to any defign, or hath the leaft footsteps of art or counsel. Notwithstanding this ftrange affertion, I am fure, if we were without these shapeless and ill figur'd old Rocks and Mountains, as he calls them, we fhould foon find the want of them. It being impoffible to fubfift or live without them. For fetting afide the ufe they may have in the production of various Plants and Metals, which are usefull to mankind, and make a part of the compleat whole, and the Food which they yield to feveral Animals, which are defign'd by Nature to live upon them; The high Hills being a refuge for the wild Goats, and the Rocks for the Conies; and not to mention the end they ferve for in directing the Inland winds, and altering the weather, in fencing and bounding Empires and Countries, in all which without doubt they do us very confi confiderable service; there is moreover one great and Univerfal ufe, which makes them abfolutely neceffary for the fubfiftance of Mankind. For without them it is certain we fhould have no Rivers, nor fresh currents of waters, and confequently we fhould want one of the greatest fupports of Life. This the Learned and Ingenious Mathematician and Philofopher Mr. Edmund Halley has effectually proved in the Philofophical Tranfactions, where gives us an account of the rife of Springs and Rivers from Vapours, *" That are raised "copiously in the Sea, and by the winds are "carried over the low Land to the high "ridges of Mountains, where they are com"pelled by the ftrean of the air to mount up "with it to the tops of the Mountains, where "they prefently precipitate, gleeting down "by the cranies of the ftones, and part of "the Vapour entring into the Caverns of "thofe Hills, the waters thereof gather as in "an Alembick, into the bafons of stone it "finds; which being once filled, all the "overplus of water that comes thither, runs "over by the loweft place and breaking out "by the fides of the Hills, forms fingle " Springs, many of thefe running down by "the valleys, or gutts between the ridges of "the hills, and coming to unite, form little "rivulets or brooks, many of these again "meeting in one common valley and gain * Philofophical Tranfactions Number 192. one "ing the plain ground being grown lefs rapid become a River, and many of these "being united in one common channel "make fuch ftreames as the Rhine, the "Rhone, and the Danube, which laft one "would hardly think the collection of waters "condenfed out of vapours, unlefs we con"fider how vaft a tract of ground that "River drains, and that it is the fumm of "all thofe Springs which break out upon the "South fide of the Carpathian Mountains, "and on the North fide of the immenfe "ridge of the Alpes, which is one continued "chain of Mountains from Switzerland to "the black Sea, fo that it may almoft pafs "for a rule, that the magnitude of a River or "the quantity of water, which it evacuates, " is proportional to the length and height of "the ridges from whence its fountain arifes. All this I take to be undeniably evident. For that vapours are raised by the heat of the Sun from the Sea in fuch vast quantities as will be fufficient to ferve all the Rivers, the fame ingenious Mr. Halley has demonftrated by Calculations. But it is alfo demonftrable that these vapours being of the fame fpecifick gravity with the air in which they fwim, muft follow its motion, that is, they must be carried by the winds over land untill they meet with fuch an obftacle as a hill in their way which refifts their motion, where they must precipitate and gleet down by |