Chap. XIT. ANTIENT METAPHYSl C S. 495 



by the author of the EfTays. According to him, every thing in the 

 univerfe is carried on, either by material neceffity, (for he fays, and 

 fays rightly, that there is no chance in nature), or, which appears to 

 be his fyftem, by a wicked being, the author of all turpitude and mo- 

 ral evil. And it Is this that diftinguifhes his philofophy, as I have ob- 

 ferved, from all other philofophy, antient or modern ; for, though 

 there have been other philofophers before him, who were Atheifts, he 

 is the only one who ever profefled to believe that there was a de-* 

 vil, but no God * : — In the human mind, fays this philofopher, there 

 are nothing but fenjations more or lefs lively, but no ideas^ and, 

 by confequence, no fcience or certainty, but every thing muft ap- 

 pear to every man as it affects his fenfes : — Even our fenfatlons 

 are no better than mere delufion, and an empty dream, as there 

 is no material world, and, therefore, nothing that can make any 

 impreffion upon our fenfes : — And, lajlly^ we ourfelves are no- 

 thing but a bundle of perceptions, that is, an accident without a 

 fubftance. On the other hand, my fyftem is, that there is mind in 

 the univerfe, as well as hody^ and that what is called nature confifts 

 of mind and body. — That there is a Supreme Mind, the author of 

 Nature, and which governs and direds her operations. — That this 

 Mind is immaterial, and entirely feparated from all matter, un- 

 changeable, both in its effence and energies, innnitely powerful, 

 wife, and good, the fountain of all truth, order, regularity, and 

 beauty, in the univerfe.-^That, below this Supreme Mind, and 

 in infinite degrees of fubordination, there are other minds, which 

 move the feveral parts of this ftupenduous frame, and accomplifh 

 certain ends, by the beft means that infinite wifdofn can devife. 

 — That fome of thefe minds have intelligence and confcioufnefs 

 of the ends for which they aft : And, among thefe, is the human 

 mind ; which, as it is conneded with body, has fenfatlons ; but, as 



it 



♦ Sec what I have further faid concerning this extraordinary fyflem, p. 308. 



