BOOK I PART IV
nothing but modifications of that one, simple,
and necessarily existent being, and are not pos-
sest of any separate or distinct existence. Ev-
ery passion of the soul; every configuration of
matter, however different and various, inhere
in the same substance, and preserve in them-
selves their characters of distinction, without
communicating them to that subject, in which
they inhere. The same substratum, if I may
so speak, supports the most different modifi-
cations, without any difference in itself; and
varies them, without any variation. Neither
time, nor place, nor all the diversity of nature
are able to produce any composition or change
in its perfect simplicity and identity.
I believe this brief exposition of the princi-
ples of that famous atheist will be sufficient for
the present purpose, and that without enter-