hinder it from acting otherwise, in given circumstances. To talk
of the _fortuitous concourse of atoms_, or to attribute some effects
to chance, is merely saying that we are ignorant of the laws, by
which bodies act, meet, combine, or separate.

Those, who are unacquainted with nature, the properties of beings,
and the effects which must necessarily result from the concurrence
of certain causes, think, that every thing takes place by chance.
It is not chance, that has placed the sun in the centre of our
planetary system; it is by its own essence, that the substance, of
which it is composed, must occupy that place, and thence be diffused.


44. The worshippers of a God find, in the order of the universe,
an invincible proof of the existence of an intelligent and wise being,
who governs it. But this order is nothing but a series of movements
necessarily produced by causes or circumstances, which are sometimes
favourable, and sometimes hurtful to us: we approve of some, and
complain of others.

Nature uniformly follows the same round; that is, the same causes
produce the same effects, as long as their action is not disturbed
by other causes, which force them to produce different effects.
When the operation of causes, whose effects we experience, is interrupted
by causes, which, though unknown, are not the less natural and necessary,
we are confounded; we cry out, _a miracle!_ and attribute it to a cause
much more unknown, than any of those acting before our eyes.

The universe is always in order. It cannot be in disorder. It is
our machine, that suffers, when we complain of disorder. The bodies,