trOLO&IFICATION IN GfcNE&AL. 325 



Assumption, that the great first Cause, who 

 created the universe, and all that is therein, 

 created confusion before order imperfection 

 before perfection the compound before the 

 simple ; it is far otherwise ; all the secondary 

 qualities of bodies which exist, are produced 

 by the union and combination which take 

 place, from things simple and elementary : and 

 in order to have a scientific knowledge of the 

 phenomena which nature presents to our view ; 

 in order to know the causes of these phenomena, 

 (which are nothing more than effects produced,) 

 it is absolutely necessary, to have a clear ap- 

 prehension of the simple, before the con> 

 pound- of expansibility, before expansion of 

 fluidity, before solution of light, before color 

 of vitality, before organisation of extension 

 in general, before figure in particular. The 

 phenomena which the secondary properties of 

 matter display, are the means by which those 

 which are primary and essential are explored; 

 they are the steps by which we are enabled to 

 ascend from the last to the first of things, 

 from the effects, to a knowledge of the cause ; 

 a branch of knowledge which, it is probable, the 

 art of analysis cannot attain, because analysis 

 cannot resolve that which is irresolvable, but 

 which, nevertheless, may be apprehended by 

 abstraction and contemplation. The defective 



