32 



ON MATTER, AND 



and not to be at the same time." This impossibility I admit ; because, to 

 assert the contrary, would imply a self-contradiction absolute and universal, 

 founded upon the very nature of tTiing-s, and consequently applicable to Om- 

 nipotence itself. But the position that "nothing can spring from nothing" is 

 of a very different character: it is necessarily true when applied to man, but 

 it is not necessarily true when applied to God. Instead of being absolute and 

 universal, it Is relative and limited; the nature of things does not allow us to 

 reason concerning it when its reference is to the latter: and hence we have 

 no authority to say that it is impossible to the Deity ; or to maintain that an 

 absolute creation out of nothing by the Deity is an absurdity or self-contra- 

 diction. It is absurd to suppose that matter does not exist; it is absurd to 

 suppose that it does exist eternally and independently of the Creator; it is 

 absurd to suppose that it constitutes the Creator himself : but, as it is not ab- 

 surd to suppose its absolute formation out of nothing by the exercise of an 

 almighty power, and as one of these four propositions must necessarily be 

 true, reason should induce us to embrace the last with the same promptitude 

 with which we reject the other three. 



So far, indeed, from intimating any absurdity in the idea that matter may 

 be created out of nothing by the interposition of an almighty intelligence, 

 reason seems, on the contrary, rather to point out to us the possibility of an 

 equal creation out of nothing of ten thousand other substances, of which each 

 may be the medium of life and happiness to infinite orders of beings ; while 

 every one may, at the same time, be as distinct from every other, as the whole 

 may be from matter, or as matter is from what, without knowing any thing 

 farther of, we commonly denominate spirit. Spirit, as generally used among 

 modern metaphysicians, is, to say the most of it, but a negative term employed 

 to express something that is not matter; but there may be ten thousand some- 

 things, and substrates of being, and moral excellence and felicity, which are 

 not matter, none of which, however, we can otherwise characterize. Yet 

 why, between all or any of these and matter itself, there should be such an 

 utter opposition and discrepancy as was contended for by Des Cartes, and has 

 since been maintained by most metaphysicians, I cannot possibly conjecture ; 

 nor conceive why it should be universally thought necessary, as it still ap- 

 pears to be thought, that the essence of the eternal Creator himself must in- 

 dispensably consist of the essence of some one of the orders of bemgs whom 

 he has created. — Why may it not be as distinct from that of an archangel as 

 from that of a mortal 1 from the whole of these various substances, which I 

 have just supposed, and which we cannot otherwise contemplate or charac 

 terize than by the negative term Spirit, as it is from matter, which is more im- 

 mediately submitted to our eyes, and constitutes the substrate of our own 

 being and sensations ? 



Matter, then, we are compelled to regard as a substance created out of no- 

 thing by an intelligent first cause ; himself immaterial, self-existent, eternal, 

 and alone ; and of matter the whole visible universe is composed. It is ar- 

 ranged and regulated by an extensive code of laws, of which, however, we 

 know but a few ; and which give birth to a multiplicity of concrete forms, 

 under which alone we are capable of contemplating it : for no effort has 

 hitherto succeeded in ultimately enucleating the compound and tracing it to 

 its elementary particles. We may divide and subdivide as we please ; but 

 when we have followed it up into its subtlest rudiments, its most retiring 

 principles, by the aid of the best glasses which the best art of man can pro- 

 vide for us, we learn no more of the real nature of its primitive essence than 

 we do from an acorn or a pebble. 



But we are as ignorant of matter in its total scope as we are of it in its 

 elementary particles. We can examine it as it exists in the globe, but the 

 globe on which we tread is but as a drop to the ocean ; the earth is surrounded 

 by other planets, by other worlds, by other systems of worlds ; all of which, 

 we have reason to believe, are composed of the same substance, and regu- 

 lated by the same laws. We stretch out our view on every side, but there are 

 still worlds beyond us ; we call in the aid of the best glasses, but they still 



