n reached? he said to them.

354. M. Bayle goes on (p. 166): 'It is true that since the laws of motion
were instituted in such forms as we see now in the world, it is an
inevitable necessity that a hammer striking a nut should break it, and[338]
that a stone falling on a man's foot should cause some bruise or some
derangement of its parts. But that is all that can follow the action of
this stone upon the human body. If you want it in addition to cause a
feeling of pain, then one must assume the institution of a code other than
that one which regulates the action and reaction of bodies one upon
another; one must, I say, have recourse to the particular system of the
laws of union between the soul and certain bodies. Now as this system is
not of necessity connected with the other, the indifference of God does not
cease in relation to the one immediately upon his choice of the other. He
therefore combined these two systems with a complete freedom, like two
things which did not follow naturally the one from the other. Thus it is by
an arbitrary institution he has ordained that wounds in the body should
cause pain in the soul which is united to this body. It therefore only
rested with him to have chosen another system of union between soul and
body: he was therefore able to choose one in accordance wherewith wounds
only evoke the idea of the remedy and an intense but agreeable desire to
apply it. He was able to arrange that all bodies which were on the point of
breaking a man's head or piercing his heart should evoke a lively sense of
danger, and that this sense should cause the body to remove itself promptly
out of reach of the blow. All that would have come to pass without
miracles, since there would have been general laws on this subject. The
system which we know by experience teaches us that the determination of the
movement of certain bodies changes in pursuance of our desires. It was
therefore possible for a combination to be effected between our desires and
the movement of certain bodies, whereby the nutritive juices were so
modified that the good arrangement of our organs was never affected.'

355. It is evident that M. Bayle believes that everything accomplished
through general laws is accomplished without miracles. But I have shown
sufficiently that if the law is not founded on reasons and does not serve
to explain the event through the nature of things, it can only be put into
execution by a miracle. If, for example