men, who in all times have persecuted those who have been the first to
give natural explanations of the phenomena of Nature, as witness
ANAXAGORAS, ARISTOTLE, GALLILEO, DESCARTES, &c. &c.





CHAP. VIII.

_The Intellectual Faculties derived from the Faculty of Feeling_.


To convince ourselves that the faculties called _intellectual_, are only
certain modes of existence, or determinate manners of acting, which
result from the peculiar organization of the body, we have only to
analyze them; we shall then see that all the operations which are
attributed to the soul, are nothing more than certain modifications of
the body; of which a substance that is without extent, that has no
parts, that is immaterial, is not susceptible.

The first faculty we behold in the living man, and that from which all
his others flow, is _feeling_: however inexplicable this faculty may
appear, on a first view, if it be examined closely, it will be found to
be a consequence of the essence, or a result of the properties of
organized beings; the same as _gravity, magnetism, elasticity,
electricity_, &c. result from the essence or nature of some others. We
shall also find these last phenomena are not less inexplicable than that
of feeling. Nevertheless, if we wish to define to ourselves a clear and
precise idea of it, we shall find that feeling is a particular manner of