BOOK I PART IV
ifications; figure, motion, gravity, and cohe-
sion. The generation, encrease, decay, and cor-
ruption of animals and vegetables, are nothing
but changes of figure and motion; as also the
operations of all bodies on each other; of fire,
of light, water, air, earth, and of all the elements
and powers of nature. One figure and motion
produces another figure and motion; nor does
there remain in the material universe any other
principle, either active or passive, of which we
can form the most distant idea.
I believe many objections might be made to
this system But at present I shall confine my-
self to one, which is in my opinion very de-
cisive. I assert, that instead of explaining the
operations of external objects by its means, we
utterly annihilate all these objects, and reduce
ourselves to the opinions of the most extrav-