revailed over a speculative hypothesis, which cannot admit of any
application to the reality of things.

23. Since, therefore, nothing is altogether indifferent to God, who knows
all degrees, all effects, all relations of things, and who penetrates at
one and the same time all their possible connexions, let us see whether at
least the ignorance and insensibility of man can make him absolutely
indifferent in his choice. The author regales us with this pure [432]
indifference as with a handsome present. Here are the proofs of it which he
gives: (1) We feel it within us. (2) We have experience within ourselves of
its marks and its properties. (3) We can show that other causes which might
determine our will are insufficient. As for the first point, he asserts
that in feeling freedom within us we feel within us at the same time pure
indifference. But I do not agree that we feel such indifference, or that
this alleged feeling follows upon that of freedom. We feel usually within
us something which inclines us to our choice. At times it happens, however,
that we cannot account for all our dispositions. If we give our mind to the
question, we shall recognize that the constitution of our body and of
bodies in our environment, the present or previous temper of our soul,
together with countless small things included under these comprehensive
headings, may contribute towards our greater or lesser predilection for
certain objects, and the variation of our opinions from one time to
another. At the same time we shall recognize that none would attribute this
to mere indifference, or to some indefinable force of the soul which has
the same effect upon objects as colours are said to have upon the
chameleon. Thus the author has no cause here to appeal to the judgement of
the people: he does so, saying that in many things the people reason better
than the philosophers. It is true that certain philosophers have been
misled by chimeras, and it would seem that mere indifference is numbered
among chimerical notions. But when someone maintains that a thing does not
exist because the common herd does not perceive it, here the populace
cannot be regarded as a good judge, being, as it is, only guided by the
senses. Many people think that air is nothing when it is not stirred by the
wind. The majority do not know of imperceptible bodies, the fluid which
causes weight or elasticity, magnetic matter, to say nothing of atoms and
other indivisible s