XXXIV INTRODUCTION. 



gerent of Deity, he observes that Nature is 

 a blind power without intelligence which acts 

 necessarily. 1 That matter is her sole domain, 

 of which however she can neither create nor 

 destroy a single atom, though she modifies 

 it continually in every way and under every 

 form, and causes the existence of all bodies 

 of which matter is essentially the base ; 

 and that in our globe it is she that has 

 immediately given existence to vegetables, to 

 animals, as well as to other bodies that are 

 there to be met with, 2 



From these statements, though he appears 

 to admit the existence of a Deity, and that 

 he is the primary author of all things, yet he 

 considers him as having delegated his power 

 to nature as his vicegerent, to whose disposal 

 he has left all material subsistences, and who, 

 according to him, is the real creator of all 

 the forms and beings that exist, and who 

 maintains the physical universe in its present 

 state. It is not quite clear w r hat opinion he 

 held with respect to the creation of matter, 

 as he no where expressly ascribes it to God ; 

 though, since he excludes nature from it, we 



1 N. Diet. D'Hist. Nat. xxii. Art. Nature, 364. 



2 Ibid. 369, 376. 



