Are not theologians strange reasoners? As soon as they can not guess the
natural causes of things, they invent causes, which they call
supernatural; they imagine them spirits, occult causes, inexplicable
agents, or rather words much more obscure than the things which they
attempt to explain. Let us remain in nature when we desire to understand
its phenomena; let us ignore the causes which are too delicate to be
seized by our organs; and let us be assured that by seeking outside of
nature we can never find the solution of nature's problems. Even upon
the theological hypothesis--that is to say, supposing an Almighty motor
in matter--what right have theologians to refuse their God the power to
endow this matter with thought? Would it be more difficult for Him to
create combinations of matter from which results thought, than spirits
which think? At least, in supposing a substance endowed with thought, we
could form some idea of the object of our thoughts, or of what thinks in
us; while attributing thought to an immaterial being, it is impossible
for us to form the least idea of it.