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THE SYSTEM OF NATURE
Or
Laws of the Moral and Physical World.
by Paul Henri Thiery, Baron d’Holbach
 
Translated by Samuel Wilkinson.
PART I.
LAWS OF NATURE--OF MAN--THE FACULTIES OF THE SOUL--DOCTRINE OF IMMORTALITY--ON HAPPINESS.
CHAPTER I.
 
Nature and her Laws.
 MAN has always deceived himself when he abandonedexperience to follow imaginary systems.--He is the workof nature.--He exists in Nature.--He is submitted to thelaws of Nature.--He cannot deliver himself from them:--cannot step beyond them even in thought. It is in vainhis mind would spring forward beyond the visible world:direful and imperious necessity ever compels his return--being formed by Nature, he is circumscribed by herlaws; there exists nothing beyond the great whole of which he forms a part, of which he experiences theinfluence. The beings his fancy pictures as above nature,or distinguished from her, are always chimeras formedafter that which he has already seen, but of which it isutterly impossible he should ever form any finishedidea, either as to the place they occupy, or their mannerof acting--for him there is not, there can be nothing outof that Nature which includes all beings.Therefore, instead of seeking out of the world heinhabits for beings who can procure him a happinessdenied to him by Nature, let him study this Nature, learnher laws, contemplate her energies, observe theimmutable rules by which she acts.--Let him apply thesediscoveries to his own felicity, and submit in silence toher precepts, which nothing can alter.--Let himcheerfully consent to be ignorant of causes hid from himunder the most impenetrable veil.--Let him yield to thedecrees of a universal power, which can never bebrought within his comprehension, nor ever emancipatehim from those laws imposed on him by his essence.The distinction which has been so often made betweenthe
 physical 
and the
moral 
being, is evidently an abuseof terms. Man is a being purely physical: the moral manis nothing more than this physical being consideredunder a certain point of view; that is to say, withrelation to some of his modes of action, arising out of his individual organization. But is not this organizationitself the work of Nature? The motion or impulse toaction, of which he is susceptible, is that not physical?His visible actions, as well as the invisible motioninteriorly excited by his will or his thoughts, are equallythe natural effects, the necessary consequences, of hispeculiar construction, and the impulse he receives fromthose beings by whom he is always surrounded. All thatthe human mind has successively invented, with a viewto change or perfect his being, to render himself happy,was never more than the necessary consequence of man's peculiar essence, and that of the beings who act
 
 
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upon him. The object of all his institutions, all hisreflections, all his knowledge, is only to procure thathappiness toward which he is continually impelled bythe peculiarity of his nature. All that he does, all that hethinks, all that he is, all that he will be, is nothing morethan what Universal Nature has made him. His ideas, hisactions, his will, are the necessary effects of thoseproperties infused into him by Nature, and of thosecircumstances in which she has placed him. In short, artis nothing but Nature acting with the tools she hasfurnished.Nature sends man naked and destitute into this worldwhich is to be his abode: he quickly learns to cover hisnakedness--to shelter himself from the inclemencies of the weather, first with artlessly constructed huts, andthe skins of the beasts of the forest; by degrees hemends their appearance, renders them moreconvenient: he establishes manufactories to supply hisimmediate wants; he digs clay, gold, and other fossilsfrom the bowels of the earth; converts them into bricksfor his house, into vessels for his use, graduallyimproves their shape, and augments their beauty. To abeing exalted above our terrestrial globe, man wouldnot appear less subjected to the laws of Nature whennaked in the forest painfully seeking his sustenance,than when living in civilized society surrounded withease, or enriched with greater experience, plunged inluxury, where he every day invents a thousand newwants and discovers a thousand new modes of supplying them. All the steps taken by man to regulatehis existence, ought only to be considered as a longsuccession of causes and effects, which are nothingmore than the development of the first impulse givenhim by nature.The same animal, by virtue of his organization, passessuccessively from the most simple to the mostcomplicated wants; it is nevertheless the consequenceof his nature. The butterfly whose beauty we admire,whose colours are so rich, whose appearance is sobrilliant, commences as an inanimate unattractive egg;from this, heat produces a worm, this becomes achrysalis, then changes into that beautiful insectadorned with the most vivid tints: arrived at this stagehe reproduces, he generates; at last despoiled of hisornaments, he is obliged to disappear, having fulfilledthe task imposed on him by Nature, having performedthe circle of transformation marked out for beings of hisorder.The same course, the same change takes place in thevegetable world. It is by a series of combinationsoriginally interwoven with the energies of the aloe, thatthis plant is insensibly regulated, gradually expanded,and at the end of a number of years produces thoseflowers which announce its dissolution.It is equally so with man, who in all his motion, all thechanges he undergoes, never acts but according to thelaws peculiar to his organization, and to the matter of which he is composed.The
 physical man
, is he who acts by the causes ourfaculties make us understand.The
moral man
, is he who acts by physical causes, withwhich our prejudices preclude us from becomingperfectly acquainted.The
wild man
is a child destitute of experience,incapable of proceeding in his happiness, because hehas not learnt how to oppose resistance to the impulseshe receives from those beings by whom he issurrounded.The
civilized man
, is he whom experience and socialityhave enabled to draw from nature the means of his ownhappiness, because he has learned to oppose resistanceto those impulses he receives from exterior beings,when experience has taught him they would bedestructive to his welfare.The
enlightened man
is man in his maturity, in hisperfection; who is capable of advancing his own felicity,because he has learned to examine, to think for himself,and not to take that for truth upon the authority of others, which experience has taught him a criticaldisquisition will frequently prove erroneous.The
happy man
is he who knows how to enjoy thebenefits bestowed upon him by nature: in other words,he who thinks for himself; who is thankful for the goodhe possesses; who does not envy the welfare of others,nor sigh after imaginary benefits always beyond hisgrasp.The
unhappy man
is he who is incapacitated to enjoythe benefits of nature; that is, he who suffers others tothink for him; who neglects the absolute good hepossesses, in a fruitless search after ideal benefits; whovainly sighs after that which ever eludes his pursuit.It necessarily results, that man in his enquiry oughtalways to contemplate experience, and natural
 
 
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philosophy: These are what he should consult in hisreligion,--in his morals,--in his legislation,--in his politicalgovernment,--in the arts,--in the sciences,--in hispleasures,--above all, in his misfortunes. Experienceteaches that Nature acts by simple, regular, andinvariable laws. It is by his senses, man is bound to thisuniversal Nature; it is by his perception he mustpenetrate her secrets; it is from his senses he must drawexperience of her laws. Therefore, whenever heneglects to acquire experience or quits its path, hestumbles into an abyss; his imagination leads him astray.All the errors of man are physical: he never deceiveshimself but when he neglects to return back to nature,to consult her laws, to call practical knowledge to hisaid. It is for want of practical knowledge he forms suchimperfect ideas of matter, of its properties, of itscombinations, of its power, of its mode of action, and of the energies which spring from its essence. Wanting thisexperience, the whole universe, to him, is but one vastscene of error. The most ordinary results appear to himthe most astonishing phenomena; he wonders at everything, understands nothing, and yields the guidance of his actions to those interested in betraying his interests.He is ignorant of Nature, and he has mistaken her laws;he has not contemplated the necessary routine whichshe has marked out for every thing she holds. Mistakenthe laws of Nature, did I say? He has mistaken himself:the consequence is, that all his systems, all hisconjectures, all his reasonings, from which he hasbanished experience, are nothing more than a tissue of errors, a long chain of inconsistencies.Error is always prejudicial to man: it is by deceivinghimself, the human race is plunged into misery. Heneglected Nature; he did not comprehend her laws; heformed gods of the most preposterous and ridiculouskinds: these became the sole objects of his hope, andthe creatures of his fear: he was unhappy, he trembledunder these visionary deities; under the supposedinfluence of visionary beings created by himself; underthe terror inspired by blocks of stone; by logs of wood;by flying fish; or the frowns of men, mortal as himself,whom his disturbed fancy had elevated above thatNature of which alone he is capable of forming any idea.His very posterity laughs at his folly, because experiencehas convinced them of the absurdity of his groundlessfears--of his misplaced worship. Thus has passed awaythe ancient mythology, with all the trifling andnonsensical attributes attached to it by ignorance.Not understanding that Nature, equal in herdistributions, entirely destitute of malice, follows onlynecessary and immutable laws, when she eitherproduces beings or destroys them, when she causesthose to suffer, whose construction creates sensibility;when she scatters among them good and evil; when shesubjects them to incessant change--he did not perceiveit was in the breast of Nature herself, that it was in herexuberance he ought to seek to satisfy his deficiencies;for remedies against his pains; for the means of rendering himself happy: he expected to derive thesebenefits from fantastic beings, whom he supposed to beabove Nature; whom he mistakingly imagined to be theauthors of his pleasures, and the cause of hismisfortunes. From hence it appears that to hisignorance of Nature, man owes the creation of thoseillusive powers; under which he has so long trembledwith fear; that superstitious worship, which has beenthe source of all his misery, and the evils entailed uponposterity.For want of clearly comprehending his own peculiarnature, his proper course, his wants, and his rights, manhas fallen in society, from
FREEDOM
into
SLAVERY
. He hadforgotten the purpose of his existence, or else hebelieved himself obliged to suppress the natural desiresof his heart, to sacrifice his welfare to the caprice of chiefs, either elected by himself, or submitted towithout examination. He was ignorant of the true policyof association--of the object of government; hedisdained to listen to the voice of Nature, which loudlyproclaimed the price of all submission to be protectionand happiness: the end of all government is the benefitof the governed, not the exclusive advantage of thegovernors. He gave himself up without enquiry to menlike himself, whom his prejudices induced him tocontemplate as beings of a superior order, as Gods uponearth, they profited by his ignorance, took advantage of his prejudices, corrupted him, rendered him vicious,enslaved him, and made him miserable. Thus man,intended by Nature for the full enjoyment of liberty, topatiently search out her laws, to investigate her secrets,to cling to his experience; has, from a neglect of hersalutary admonitions, from an inexcusable ignorance of his own peculiar essence, fallen into servility: has beenwickedly governed.Having mistaken himself, he has remained ignorant of the indispensable affinity that subsists between him,and the beings of his own species: having mistaken hisduty to himself, it consequently follows, he hasmistaken his duty to others. He made a calculation inerror of what his happiness required; he did notperceive, what he owed to himself, the excesses heought to avoid, the desires he ought to resist, the
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