The barbarian, when he speaks of a spirit, attaches at least some sense
to this word; he understands by it an agent similar to the wind, to the
agitated air, to the breath, which produces, invisibly, effects that we
perceive. By subtilizing, the modern theologian becomes as little
intelligible to himself as to others. Ask him what he means by a spirit?
He will answer, that it is an unknown substance, which is perfectly
simple, which has nothing tangible, nothing in common with matter. In
good faith, is there any mortal who can form the least idea of such a
substance? A spirit in the language of modern theology is then but an
absence of ideas. The idea of spirituality is another idea without a
model.




XXII.--ALL WHICH EXISTS SPRINGS FROM THE BOSOM OF MATTER.

Is it not more natural and more intelligible to deduce all which exists,
from the bosom of matter, whose existence is demonstrated by all our
senses, whose effects we feel at every moment, which we see act, move,
communicate, motion, and constantly bring living beings into existence,
than to attribute the formation of things to an unknown force, to a
spiritual being, who can not draw from his ground that which he has not
himself, and who, by the spiritual essence claimed for him, is incapable
of making anything, and of putting anything in motion? Nothing is
plainer than that they would have us believe that an intangible spirit
can act upon matter.