were most certain that what they call nature had purposely formed
bodies in such a determinate state, and were always watchful that they
should not by any external violence be put out of it. But
notwithstanding so general a consent of men in this point, I confess,
I cannot yet be satisfied about it in the sense wherein it is wont to
be taken. It is not, that I believe, that there is no sense in which,
or in the account upon which, a body may he said to be in its natural
state; but that I think the common distinction of a natural and
violent state of bodies has not been clearly explained and
considerately settled, and both is not well grounded, and is
oftentimes ill applied. For when I consider that whatever state a body
be put into, or kept in, it obtains or retains that state, assenting
to the catholic laws of nature, I cannot think it fit to deny that in
this sense the body proposed is in a natural state; but then, upon the
same ground, it will he hard to deny but that those bodies which are
said to be in a violent state may also be in a natural one, since the
violence they are presumed to suffer from outward agents is likewise
exercised no otherwise than according to the established laws of
universal nature."

There must be something very fascinating and comforting in the
alchemical view of nature, as a harmony constructed on one simple
plan, which can be grasped as a whole, and also in its details, by the
introspective processes of the human intellect; for that conception
prevails to-day among those who have not investigated natural
occurrences for themselves. The alchemical view of nature still forms
the foundation of systems of ethics, of philosophy, of art. It appeals
to the innate desire of man to make himself the measure of all
things. It is so easy, so authoritative, apparently so satisfactory.
No amount of thinking and reasoning will ever demonstrate its falsity.