XXviii INTRODUCTION. 



do with the works of creation. Thus he ex- 

 cludes the Deity from the government of the 

 world that he has created, putting nature in 

 his place ; and with respect to the noblest 

 and last formed of his creatures into whom he 

 himself breathed the breath of life ; he cer- 

 tainly admits him to be the most perfect of 

 animals, but instead of a son of God, the 

 root of his genealogical tree, according to 

 him, is an animalcule, a creature without 

 sense or voluntary motion, or internal or 

 external organs, at least in his idea no 

 wonder therefore that he considers his intel- 

 lectual powers, not as indicating a spiritual 

 substance derived from heaven though re- 

 sident in his body, but merely as the result 

 of his organization, 1 and ascribes to him in 

 the place of a soul, a certain interior senti- 

 ment, upon the discovery of which he prides 

 himself. 2 In one of his latest descriptions of 

 it, he thus describes the office of this internal 

 sentiment : " Every action of an intelligent 

 individual, whether it be a movement or a 

 thought, or an act amongst the thoughts, is 



1 N. Diet. D 1 Hist. Nat. xvi. Artie. Intelligence , 344. comp. 

 Ibid. Artie. Idee, 78, 80. 

 Ibid. 332. 



