happiness: the end of all government | activity; to be led by routine, rather the benefit of the governed, not the than by his reason which exacts reflecexclusive advantage of the governours. tion. From hence may be traced the He gave himself up without reserve to aversion man betrays for every thing men like himself, whom his prejudices that swerves from those rules to which induced him to contemplate as beings he has been accustomed: hence his of a superior order, as gods upon earth: stupid, his scrupulous respect for antithese profited by his ignorance, took ad-quity, for the most silly, the most abvantage of his prejudices, corrupted surd institutions of his fathers: hence him, rendered him vicious, enslaved those fears that seize him, when the him, made him miserable. Thus man, most advantageous changes are proposintended by Nature for the full enjoy-ed to him, or the most probable attempts ment of freedom, to patiently investigate her laws, to search into her secrets, to always cling to his experience, has, from a neglect of her salutary admonitions, from an inexcusable ignorance of his own peculiar essence, fallen into servitude, and has been wickedly governed. Having mistaken himself, he has remained ignorant of the necessary affinity that subsists between him and the beings of his own species: having mistaken his duty to himself, it followed, as a consequence, he has mistaken his duty to others. He made an erroneous calculation of what his felicity required; he did not perceive, what he owed to himself, the excesses he ought to avoid, the passions he ought to resist, the impulses he ought to follow, in order to consolidate his happiness, to promote his comfort, to further his advantage. In short, he was ignorant of his true interests; hence his irregularities, his intemperance, his shameful voluptuousness, with that long train of vices to which he has abandoned himself, at the expense of his preservation, at the risk of his permanent felicity. It is, therefore, ignorance of himself, that has prevented man from enlightenng his morals. The depraved governments to which he had submitted, felt an interest in preventing the practice of his duties, even when he knew them. Man's ignorance has endured so long, he has taken such slow, such irresolute steps to ameliorate his condition, only because he has neglected to study Nature, to scrutinize her laws, to search out her resources, to discover her properties. His sluggishness finds its account in permitting himself to be guided by precedent, rather than to follow experience which demands are made to better his condition. He dreads to examine, because he has been taught to hold it a profanation of something immediately connected with his welfare; he credulously believes_the interested advice, and spurns at those who wish to show him the danger of the road he is travelling. This is the reason why nations linger on in the most scandalous lethargy, groaning under abuses transmitted from century to century, trembling at the very idea of that which alone can remedy their misfortunes. It is for want of energy, for want of consulting experience, that medicine, natural philosophy, agriculture, painting, in short, all the useful sciences have so long remained under the shackles of authority, have progressed so little : those who profess these sciences, for the most part prefer treading the beaten paths, however inadequate to their end, rather than strike out new ones: they prefer the ravings of their imagination, their gratuitous conjectures, to that laborious experience which alone can extract her secrets from Nature. In short, man, whether from sloth or from terrour, having renounced the evidence of his senses, has been guided in all his actions, in all his enterprises, by imagination, by enthusiasm, by habit, by prejudice, and above all, by authority, which knew well how to deceive him. Thus, imaginary systems have supplied the place of experience-of reflection-of reason. Man, petrified with his fears, inebriated with the marvellous, or benumbed with sloth, surrendered his experience: guided by his credulity, he was unable to fall back upon it, he became consequently inexperienced: from thence he gave birth to the most ridiculous opinions, or else adopted without examination, all those chimeras, all those idle notions offer distinguishing them, and that it is not without motives that two empires have been separated, which are equally the inheritance of nature. ed to him by men whose interest it was to fool him to the top of his bent. Thus, because man has forgotten Nature, has neglected her ways-because he has disdained experience-because The universe, that vast assemblage he has thrown by his reason-because of every thing that exists, presents only he has been enraptured with the mar-matter and motion: the whole offers to vellous, with the supernatural-because our contemplation nothing but an imhe has unnecessarily trembled, man mense, an uninterrupted succession of has continued so long in a state of in- causes and effects; some of these causes fancy; and these are the reasons there are known to us, because they strike is so much trouble in conducting him immediately on our senses; others are from this state of childhood to that of unknown to us, because they act upon manhood. He has had nothing but the us by effects, frequently very remote most jejune hypotheses, of which he from their original cause. has never dared to examine either the principles or the proofs, because he has been accustomed to hold them sacred, to consider them as the most perfect truths, of which it is not permitted to doubt, even for an instant. His ignorance rendered him credulous: his curiosity made him swallow large draughts of the marvellous: time confirmed him in his opinions, and he passed his conjectures from race to race for realities; a tyrannical power maintained him in his notions, because by those alone could society be enslaved. At length the whole science of man became a confused mass of darkness, falsehood and contradictions, with here and there a feeble ray of truth, furnished by that Nature of which he can never entirely divest himself, because, without his knowledge, his necessities are continually bringing him back to her resources. An immense variety of matter, combined under an infinity of forms, incessantly communicates, unceasingly receives a diversity of impulses. The different properties of this matter, its innumerable combinations, its various methods of action, which are the necessary consequence of these combinations, constitute for man, what he calls the essence of beings: it is from these diversified essences that spring the orders, the classes, or the systems, which these beings respectively occupy, of which the sum total makes up that which is called Nature. Nature, therefore, in its most extended signification, is the great whole that results from the assemblage of matter under its various combinations, with that diversity of motions which the universe offers to our view. Nature, in a less extended sense, or considered in each individual, is the whole that results from Let us then, raise ourselves above its essence; that is to say, the properties, these clouds of prejudice, contemplate the combination, the impulse, and the the opinions of men, and observe their peculiar modes of action, by which it is various systems; let us learn to distrust discriminated from other beings. It is a disordered imagination let us take thus that MAN is, as a whole, the result experience, that faithful monitor, for of a certain combination of matter, enour guide; let us consult Nature, ex-dowed with peculiar properties, compeplore her laws, dive into her stores; tent to give, capable of receiving, certain let us draw from herself our ideas of the beings she contains; let us fall back on our senses, which errour, interested errour has taught us to suspect; let us consult that reason, which, for the vilest purposes, has been so shamefully calumniated, so cruelly disgraced; let us attentively examine the visible world, and let us try if it will not enable us to form a tolerable judgment of the invisible territory of the intellectual world perhaps it may be found that there has been no sufficient reason for impulses, the arrangement of which is called organization, of which the essence is, to feel, to think, to act, to move, after a manner distinguished from other beings with which he can be compared. Man, therefore, ranks in an order, in a system, in a class by himself, which differs from that of other animals, in whom we do not perceive those properties of which he is possessed. The different systems of beings, or if they will, their particular natures, depend on the general system of the great whole, or that universal nature, | relative distance to other bodies. It is of which they form a part; to which motion alone that establishes the relaevery thing that exists is necessarily tion between our senses and exterior: submitted, and attached. or interior beings: it is only by motion, that these beings are impressed upon us-that we know their existencethat we judge of their properties—that we distinguish the one from the otherthat we distribute them into classes. Having described the proper definition that should be applied to the word NATURE, I must advise the reader, once for all, that whenever, in the course of this work, the expression occurs, that "Nature produces such or such an effect," there is no intention of personifying that nature, which is purely an abstract being; it merely indicates, that the effect spoken of, necessarily springs from the peculiar properties of those beings which compose the mighty macrocosm. When, therefore, it is said, Nature demands that man should pursue his own happiness, it is to prevent circumlocution, to avoid tautology; it is to be understood that it is the property of a being that feels, that thinks, that wills, that acts, to labour to its own happiness; in short, that is called natural which is conformable to the essence of things, or to the laws which Nature prescribes to the beings she contains, in the different orders they occupy, under the various circumstances through which they are obliged to pass. Thus health is natural to man in a certain state; disease is natural to him under other circumstances; dissolution, or if they will, death, is a natural state for a body, deprived of some of those things, necessary to maintain the existence of the animal, &c. By ESSENCE is to be understood, that which constitutes a being such as it is; the whole of the properties, or qualities, by which it acts as it does. Thus, when it is said, it is the essence of a stone to fall, it is the same as saying, that its descent, is the necessary effect of its gravity, of its density, of the cohesion of its parts, of the elements of which it is composed. In short, the essence of a being, is its particular, its individual nature. CHAPTER II. Of Motion, and its Origin. MOTION is an effect by which a body either changes, or has a tendency to change its position: that is to say, by which it successively corresponds with different parts of space, or changes its The beings, the substances, or the various bodies, of which nature is the assemblage, are themselves effects of certain combinations—-effects which become causes in their turn. A cause is a being which puts another in motion, or which produces some change in it. The effect is the change produced in one body by the motion or presence of another. Each being, by its essence, by its peculiar nature, has the faculty of producing, is capable of receiving, has the power of communicating a variety of motion. Thus some beings are proper to strike our organs: these organs are competent to receiving the impression, are adequate to undergoing changes by their presence. Those which cannot act on any of our organs, either immediately and by themselves, or mediately, by the intervention of other bodies, exist not for us; since they can neither move us, nor consequently furnish us with ideas: they can neither be known to us, nor of course be judged of by us. know an object, is to have felt it; to feel it, it is requisite to have been moved by it. To see, is to have been moved by something acting on the visual organs; to hear, is to have been struck by something on our auditory nerves. In short, in whatever mode a body may act upon us, whatever impulse we may receive from it, we can have no other knowledge of it than by the change it produces in us. To Nature, as we have already said, is the assemblage of all the beings, and consequently, of all the motion of which we have a knowledge, as well as of many others of which we know nothing, because they have not yet become accessible to our senses. From the continual action and re-action of these beings, result a series of causes and effects; or a chain of motion guided by the constant and invariable laws peculiar to each being; which are necessary or inherent to its particular nature, which make it always act or move after a determinate manner. The different enable us to discover. Thus we call principles of this motion, are unknown that acquired motion, which the wind to us, because we are in many instances, gives to the sails of a ship. That if not in all, ignorant of what constitutes the essence of beings. The elements of bodies escape our senses; we know them only in the mass: we are neither acquainted with their intimate combination, nor the proportion of these combinations; from whence must necessarily result their mode of action, their impulse, or their different effects. motion, which is excited in a body containing within itself the causes of those changes we see it undergo, is called spontaneous.-Then it is said, this body acts or moves by its own peculiar energies. Of this kind is the motion of the man who walks, who talks, who thinks. Nevertheless, if we examine the matter a little closer, we shall be convinced, that, strictly speaking, there is no such thing as spontaneous motion in any of the various bodies of Nature; seeing they are perpetually acting one upon the other; that all their changes are to be attributed to the causes, either visible or concealed, by which they are moved. The will of man, is secretly moved or determined by some exterior cause producing a change in him: we believe he moves of himself, because we neither see the cause that determined him, the mode in which it acted, nor the organ that it put in motion. That is called simple motion, which is excited in a body by a single cause. Compound motion, that, which is produced by two or more different causes; whether these causes are equal or unequal, conspiring differently, acting together or in succession, known or unknown. Our senses, bring us generally acquainted with two sorts of motion in the beings that surround us. The one is the motion of the mass, by which an entire body, is transferred from one place to another. Of the motion of this genus we are perfectly sensible. Thus, we see a stone fall, a ball roll, an arm move or change its position. The other, is an internal or concealed motion, which always depends on the peculiar energies of a body; that is to say, on its essence, or the combination, the action, and reaction of the minute, of the insensible particles of matter, of which that body is composed. This motion we do not see; we know it only by the alteration, or change, which, after some time, we discover in these bodies or mixtures. Of this genus is that concealed motion which fermentation produces in the particles that compose flour, which, however scattered, however separated, unite, and form that mass which we Let the motion of beings be of whatcall bread. Such, also, is the imper-soever nature it may, it is always the ceptible motion, by which we see a necessary consequence of their essence, plant or animal enlarge, strengthen, or of the properties which compose undergo changes, and acquire new qua- them, and of those causes of which lities, without our eyes being competent they experience the action. Each being to follow its progression, or to perceive can only move, and act, after a particuthe causes which have produced these lar manner; that is to say, conformably effects. Such, also, is the internal to those laws which result from its motion that takes place in man, which peculiar essence, its particular combiis called his intellectual faculties, his nation, its individual nature: in short, thoughts, his passions, his will. Of from its specific energies, and those of these we have no other mode of judg- the bodies from which it receives an ing than by their action; that is, by impulse. It is this that constitutes the those sensible effects which either ac- invariable laws of motion: I say invacompany or follow them. Thus, when riable, because they can never change we see a man run away, we judge him without producing confusion in the to be interiorly actuated by the passion essence of things. It is thus that a of fear. heavy body must necessarily fall, if it meets with no obstacle sufficient to arrest its descent; that a sensible body must naturally seek pleasure, and avoid pain; that fire must necessarily burn, and diffuse light. Motion, whether visible or concealed, is styled acquired when it is impressed on one body by another; either by a cause to which we are a stranger, or by an exterior agent which our senses No. I.-3 Natural philosophers, for the most part, seem not to have sufficiently reflected on what they call the nisus; that is to say, the incessant efforts one body is making on another, but which, notwithstanding, appear, to our superficial observation, to enjoy the most A stone of five hun Each being, then, has laws of motion | iron, which time, and the action of the that are adapted to itself, and constantly atnrosphere, has gnawed into rust, must acts, or moves according to these laws; have been in motion from the moment at least when no superior cause inter- of its formation in the bowels of the rupts its action. Thus, fire ceases to earth, until the instant we behold it in burn combustible matter, as soon as this state of dissolution. sufficient water is thrown into it to arrest its progress. Thus, a sensible being ceases to seek pleasure, as soon as he fears that pain will be the result. The communication of motion, or the medium of action, from one body to another, also follows certain and necessary laws: one being can only commu- perfect repose. nicate motion to another by the affinity,dred weight seems at rest on the earth, by the resemblance, by the conformity, nevertheless, it never ceases for an by the analogy, or by the point of con- instant to press with force upon the tact which it has with that other being. earth, which resists or repulses it in its Fire can only propagate when it finds turn. Will the assertion be ventured, matter analogous to itself: it extin- that the stone and the earth do not act? guishes when it encounters bodies Do they wish to be undeceived? They which it cannot embrace; that is to have nothing to do, but interpose their say, that do not bear towards it a cer- hand betwixt the earth and the stone; tain degree of relation or affinity. it will then be discovered, that, notEvery thing in the universe is in withstanding its seeming repose, the motion; the essence of matter is to act: stone has power adequate to bruise it. if we consider its parts attentively, we Action cannot exist in bodies without shall discover that not a particle enjoys re-action. A body that experiences an absolute repose. Those which appear impulse, an attraction, or a pressure of to us to be without motion, are, in fact, any kind, if it resists, clearly demononly in relative or apparent rest; they strates by such resistance, that it reexperience such an imperceptible mo- acts; from whence it follows, there is a tion, and expose it so little on their concealed force, called by philosophers surfaces, that we cannot perceive the [vis inertia, that displays itself against changes they undergo.* All that ap-another force; and this clearly demonpears to us to be at rest, does not, strates, that this inert force is capable however, remain one instant in the same state. All beings are continually breeding, increasing, decreasing, or dispersing, with more or less tardiness or rapidity. The insect called ephemeron, is produced, and perishes in the same day; consequently, it experiences the great changes of its being very rapidly. Those combinations which form the most solid bodies, and which, to ours eyes, appear to enjoy the most perfect repose, are nevertheless decomposed and dissolved in the course of time. The hardest stones, by degrees, give way to the contact of air. A mass of * This truth, which is still denied by many metaphysicians, has been conclusively established by the celebrated Toland, in a work which appeared in the beginning of the eighteenth century, entitled Letters to Serena. Those who can procure this scarce work will do well to refer to it, and their doubts on the subject, if they have any, will be removed. of both acting and re-acting. In short, it will be found, on close investigation, that those powers which are called dead, and those which are termed live or moving, are powers of the same species, which only display themselves after a different manner.† † Actioni æqualis et contraria est reactio. V. BILFINGER, DE DEO, ANIMA ET MUNDO. ccxviii. page 241. Upon which the Commentator adds,-Reactio dicitur actio patientis in agens, seu corporis in quod agitar actio in illud quod in ipsum agit. Nulla autem datur in corporibus actio sine reactione, dum enim corpus ad motum sollicitatur, resistit motui, atque hâc ipsâ resistentiâ reagit in agens. Nisus se exerens adversus nisum agentis, seu vis illa corporis, quatenus resistit, internum resistentiæ principium, vocatur vis inertiæ, seu passiva. Ergo corpus reagit vi inertia. Vis igitur inertiæ et vis motrix in corporibus una eademque est vis, diverso tamen modo se exerens. Vis autem inertiæ consistit in nisi adversus nisum agentis se exerente, &c. IBIDEM. notrapid to it, though. |