THE SYNTHETICAL METHOD. 475 



comprehensible than Omnipotence, but of which nearly as 

 little appears with certainty to be understood, — the nature 

 of sentient principles, other than the human soul. 



We may pass over those who pretend to disbelieve the 

 evidence of their senses, and to doubt the existence of 

 matter. No man of this way of thinking, can rationally 

 take up a book on Natural History, much less can he have 

 studied it ; and we turn therefore to the equally absurd 

 dogma of those, who on the contrary deny the existence of 

 every thing but matter. 



1. This, which is the most simple kind of materialism, 

 was the celebrated system of Spinoza, so ably refuted by 

 Clarke and Cudworth. There is nothing in the universe, 

 says Spinoza, but matter, which is the universe or Deity, 

 and has cogitation among its other attributes. It is suffi- 

 cient to observe, that by this impious, if intelligible pro- 

 position, time and space were denied existence, since they 

 are clearly distinct from matter, and therefore could have 

 no place in the universe of Spinozists ! 



2. Next therefore come those who acknowledge the ex- 

 istence of something in the universe besides matter, and 

 who even believe in the immateriality of the Deity, but in- 

 sist that the sentient and cogitative principle in man is not 

 distinct from the body, but the result of its organization. 

 With such persons sensation is nothing else than a variety 

 of material life, and reason little better than the conflict of 

 various appetites. 



The advocates of this opinion may be ranged under two 

 heads : — viz. those who believe in the authority of revealed 

 religion, and those who do not. Both proceed to a certain 

 point on the same reasoning, and argue, that as the powers 

 of perception and thought have never been found but in 



