than lay them out on grammatical remarks; so, in perusing
the volume of Nature, it seems beneath the dignity of the mind to affect
an exactness in reducing each particular phenomenon to general rules, or
showing how it follows from them. We should propose to ourselves nobler
views, such as to recreate and exalt the mind, with a prospect of the
beauty, order, extent, and variety, of natural things; hence, by proper
inferences, to enlarge our notions of the grandeur, wisdom, and
beneficence of the Creator.

The reason that is assigned for our being thought ignorant of the nature
of spirits is our not having an idea of them. But it is manifestly
impossible that there should be any such idea. A spirit is the only
substance or support wherein the unthinking beings or ideas can exist;
but that this substance which supports or perceives ideas should itself
be an idea is absurd.

From the opinion that spirits are to be known after the manner of an
idea or sensation have arisen many heterodox tenets and much scepticism
about the nature of the soul. It is even probable that this opinion may
have produced a doubt in some whether they had any soul at all distinct
from their body, since they could not find that they had an idea of it.
But the spirit is a real thing, which is neither an idea nor like an
idea. What I am myself, that which I denote by the term "I," is what we
mean by soul or spiritual substance; and we know other spirits by means
of our own soul, which in that sense is an image or idea of them.

By the natural immortality of the soul we mean that it is not liable to
be either broken or dissolved by the ordinary laws of Nature or motion.
The soul itself is indivisible, incorporeal, unextended, and is
consequently incorruptible.

_III.--OUR KNOWLEDGE OF GOD_

Though there be some things which convince us that human agents are
concerned in producing them, yet it is evident to everyone that those
things which are called the works of Nature--that is, the far greater
part of the ideas or sensations perceived by us--are not produced by,
nor dependent on, the wills of men. There is, therefore, some other
spirit that causes them, since they cannot subsist themselves.

If we attentively consider the constant regularity, order, and
concatenation of natural things, the surprising magnificence, beauty,
and perfection of the larger, and the exquisite contrivance of the
smaller parts together with the exact harmony and cor