BOOK I PART IV
ologians pretend to make a monopoly of the
word, action, and may not the atheists likewise
take possession of it, and affirm that plants, an-
imals, men, &c. are nothing but particular ac-
tions of one simple universal substance, which
exerts itself from a blind and absolute neces-
sity? This you’ll say is utterly absurd. I own it
is unintelligible; but at the same time assert, ac-
cording to the principles above-explained, that
it is impossible to discover any absurdity in the
supposition, that all the various objects in na-
ture are actions of one simple substance, which
absurdity will not be applicable to a like sup-
position concerning impressions and ideas.
From these hypotheses concerning the sub-
stance and local conjunction of our perceptions,
we may pass to another, which is more intelli-
gible than the former, and more important than