2. Evidently nature possesses neither hands, nor feet, nor any natural
or artificial instrument. For production its only need is a matter on
which to work, and which it forms. The works of nature exclude all
ideas of mechanical operation; not by any impelling force, nor by
using levers nor machines does it produce varied colors, nor draw the
outlines of objects. Even the workmen who form wax figures, to whose
work the operations of nature are often compared, cannot endue objects
with colors without borrowing them from elsewhere. Besides, we must
observe that these workmen contain a power which remains immutable, and
by the sole means of which they produce their works with their hands.
Likewise, nature contains a power which remains immovable as a whole;
it has no need of some parts that would remain immovable, and others
that move. It is matter alone that undergoes movement, for the forming
power is in no way moved. Were the forming power moved, it would no
longer be the first motor[179]; the first motor would no longer be
nature, but whatever might, in its totality, be immovable.