The System of Nature OR Laws of the Moral and Physical World [2 Volumes]

We have commenced the library with a translation of Baron d’Holbach’s System of Nature, because it is estimated as one of the most able expositions of theological absurdities which has ever been written. It is in reality a System of Nature. Man is here considered in all his relations both to his own species and those spiritual beings which are supposed to exist in the imaginary Utopia of religious devotees. This great work strikes at the root of all the errours and evil consequences of religious superstition and intolerance. It inculcates the purest morality; instructing us to be kind one to another, in order to live happily in each other’s society — to be tolerant and forbearing, because belief is involuntary, and mankind are so organized that all cannot think alike — to be indulgent and benevolent, because kindness begets kindness, and hence each individual becomes interested for the happiness of every other, and thus all contribute to human felicity. Let those who declare the immorality of sceptical writings, read the System of Nature, and they will be undeceived. They will then learn that the calumniated sceptics are incited by no other motives than the most praiseworthy benevolence; that far from endeavouring to increase that misery which is incidental to human life, they only wish to heal the animosities caused by religious dissensions, and to show men that their true polar star is to be happy, and endeavour to render others so. But above all, let those read this work who seek to come at a “knowledge of the truth;” — let those read it whose minds are harassed by the fear of death, or troubled by the horrible tales of a sanguinary and vengeful God. Let them read this work, and their doubts will vanish if there is any potency in the spear of Ithuriel. If the most profound logic, the acutest discrimination, the keenest and most caustic sarcasm, can reflect credit on an author, then we may justly hail Baron d’Holbach as the greatest among philosophers, and an honour to infidels. He is the author of many celebrated works besides the System of Nature, among which we may number, Good Sense, The Natural History of Superstition, Letters to Eugenia, and other famous publications. Vol.1 Contents Advertisement. To the Public. Author’s Preface 1. Of Nature. 2. Of Motion, and its Origin. 3. Of Matter: — Of its various Combinations; Of its diversified Motion; or, of the Course of Nature. 4. Of the Laws of Motion common to all the Beings of Nature — Of Attraction and Repulsion — Of inert Force — Of Necessity. 5. Of Order and Confusion — Of Intelligence — Of Chance. 6. Of Man — Of his Distinction into Moral and Physical — Of his Origin. 7. Of the Soul, and of the Spiritual System. 8. Of the Intellectual Faculties; they are all derived from the Faculty of Feeling. 9. Of the Diversity of the Intellectual Faculties; they depend on Physical Causes, as do their Moral Qualities. The Natural Principles of Society. — Of Morals. — Of Politics. 10. The Soul does not derive its Ideas from itself. It has no innate Ideas. 11. Of the System of Man’s Free Agency. 12. An Examination of the Opinion which pretends that the System of Fatalism is Dangerous. 13. Of the Immortality of the Soul, — Of the Doctrine of a future State; — Of the Fear of Death. 14. Education, Morals, and the Laws, suffice to restrain Man. — Of the Desire of Immortality. — Of Suicide. 15. Of Man’s true Interest, or of the Ideas he forms to himself of Happiness. — Man cannot be Happy without Virtue. 16. The Errours of Man, upon what constitutes Happiness, the true Source of his Evil. — Remedies that may be applied. 17. Those Ideas which are true, or founded upon Nature, are the only Remedies for the Evils of Man. — Recapitulation. — Conclusion of the First Part. 18. The Origin of Man’s Ideas upon the Divinity. 19. Of Mythology, and Theology. Notes Vol.2 Contents 1. Of the confuted and contradictory ideas of Theology. 2. Examination of the Proofs of the Existence of the Divinity, as given by Clarke. 3. Examination of the Proofs of the Existence of God given by Descartes, Malebranche, Newton, &c. 4. Of Pantheism, or of the Natural Ideas of the Divinity. 5. Of Theism or Deism; of the System of Optimism; and of Final Causes. 6. Examination of the Advantages which result to men from their Notions on the Divinity, or of their Influence upon Morals, upon Politics, upon the Sciences, upon the Happiness of Nations and Individuals. 7. Theological Notions cannot be the Basis of Morality. Comparison between Theological Morality and Natural Morality. Theology Prejudicial to the Progress of the Human Mind. 8. Men can form no Conclusion from the Ideas which are given them of the Divinity: Of the want of Just Interference in, and of the Inutility of, their Conduct on his Account. 9. Defence of the Sentiments contained in this Work. Of Impiety. Do there exist Atheists? 10. Is Atheism compatible with Morality? 11. Of the Motives which lead to Atheism? Can this System be Dangerous? Can it be Embraced by the Uninformed? 12. A Summary of the Code of Nature. Appendix: The True Meaning Of the System of Nature. Notes