changing, so the aspect of Nature is nothing more than a flow of
matter presenting an impermanent form. The universe, considered
as a whole, is unchangeable. Nothing is eternal but space, atoms,
force. The forms of Nature that we see are essentially
transitory, they must all pass away.

STOICISM IN THE MUSEUM. We must bear in mind that the majority of
men are imperfectly educated, and hence we must not needlessly
offend the religious ideas of our age. It is enough for us
ourselves to know that, though there is a Supreme Power, there is
no Supreme Being. There is an invisible principle, but not a
personal God, to whom it would be not so much blasphemy as
absurdity to impute the form, the sentiments, the passions of
man. All revelation is, necessarily, a mere fiction. That which
men call chance is only the effect of an unknown cause. Even of
chances there is a law. There is no such thing as Providence, for
Nature proceeds under irresistible laws, and in this respect the
universe is only a vast automatic engine. The vital force which
pervades the world is what the illiterate call God. The
modifications through which all things are running take place in
an irresistible way, and hence it may be said that the progress
of the world is, under Destiny, like a seed, it can evolve only
in a predetermined mode.

The soul of man is a spark of the vital flame, the general vital
principle. Like heat, it passes from one to another, and is
finally reabsorbed or reunited in the universal principle from
which it came. Hence we must not expect annihilation, but
reunion; and, as the tired man looks forward to the insensibility
of sleep, so the philosopher, weary of the world, should look