BOOK I PART IV
visibility of a thinking substance is a true athe-
ism, and will serve to justify all those senti-
ments, for which Spinoza is so universally in-
famous. From this topic, I hope at least to reap
one advantage, that my adversaries will not
have any pretext to render the present doctrine
odious by their declamations, when they see
that they can be so easily retorted on them.
The fundamental principle of the atheism of
Spinoza is the doctrine of the simplicity of the
universe, and the unity of that substance, in
which he supposes both thought and matter
to inhere. There is only one substance, says
he, in the world; and that substance is per-
fectly simple and indivisible, and exists every
where, without any local presence. Whatever
we discover externally by sensation; whatever
we feel internally by reflection; all these are