JpB ON THE LAWS OF NATURE. 



ter acts muft, if they exift at all, neceffarily flow from 

 their own nature. 



iC The eternal laws by which the world is preferved 

 €e and governed, fays a great mathematician*, are fo 

 " fimple, that they appear to have eftablilhed them- 

 " felves " 



At mihi nec unquam plaeuit, nec placebit fane un- 

 quam in inveftigatione naturae cwfarum finalium ufus. 

 Nam non perfecliones omnes innotefcere nobis poffunt, 

 qui ivtimas rerum naturas nequaquam infpicimus, fed 

 externas tantummodo proprietates quafdam agnofci- 

 mus, fays pere Bofcovich in his Theoria philofophiaa 

 Baturalis, printed at Venice. 



Even this true geometrical genius rejects the opti- 

 mifm of Leibnitz, for this reaton among others : Be- 

 caufe in every clafs of poiBbilities, only one fucceffion 

 of finite things, though protracted to infinitude, can 

 hav e place ; and becaufe here we can as little conceive 

 of a maximum a? of a minimum in perfection. 



Quavis fimta perfect ione, utcunque magna vel par- 

 va, lit alia perfectio major vel minor, fays Bofco^ 

 vich. 



From whence he concludes, that God, whatever de^ 

 gree of perfection he had chofen for his world, muft 

 neceffarily have pafTed by other and greater degrees. 

 Optimum non lelegit, ubi optimum eft nullum, conti- 

 nues he. 



Rehberg, of Hanover, too, whom I look upon as 

 one of the keeneft philofophers that has appeared, has, 

 in his laft performance, on the relation of metaphy- 



* I think it was Condorcet. 



fics 



