I'M) MEMOIRS OF 



intrinsic qualities which they always possess. 

 The nature of gold is to be heavy, yellow, and 

 not liable to decomposition by air or humidity, 

 &c. Thus taken in its most generic acceptation, 

 the nature of a thing is that which makes it 

 what it is — that which distinguishes it, which 

 constitutes it — in a word, its essence : and it is 

 thus that we speak even of the Being of beings, 

 — of Him in whom, and by whom, are all things; 

 and therefore the expression applied to God, 

 and to his attributes, is a most improper term 

 when applied to the vilest and most perishable 

 bodies. But that which exists in the nature of 

 each individual, exists also in each species, and 

 each genus ; and thus, rising from abstraction to 

 abstraction, we at length arrive at tlie idea of a 

 general nature of all things ; this embraces the 

 qualities common to all beings, and the laws of 

 their mutual affinities ; it is the nature of things, 

 taken in its most abstract sense. Lastly, by a 

 figure of speech, common to all languages, this 

 term has been employed for the things them- 

 selves, for the substances to which these qua- 

 lities belong. Nature then is, all beings, or the 

 universe, or the world ; and when considered as 

 contingent and in opposition to the necessary 

 Being, to God, it is called Creation. Nature, 



