A Memoir- the Testament

by Jean Meslier

  This is also why the most sensible among our God-cultists can’t help but acknowledge the evidence of the truth of the principles on the basis of which I’m arguing. This is how the author of Recherche de la vérité[838] explains himself on this subject:

  After having noted that, to properly judge things, we must consider carefully and without preoccupation, and to reason without fear of being mistaken, it is requisite to always preserve the evidence in one’s perceptions, and only reason according to clear ideas, and on the basis of their data, which are known clearly, and close consideration of extension lets us easily conceive that a part can be separated from another, that is, that local motion is easily conceived[839], and that this local motion produces a shape in one or another of the bodies that are moved; the simples of motions and the one which is first presented to the imagination is movement in a straight line. Supposing, then, that there is some part of extension which moves in a straight line, it is necessary that that which is found in the place where this first extension will go, moves in a circular manner to take the place which the other leaves behind; and thus, that it makes a circular motion. And if an infinity of movements in a straight line are conceived of, in an infinity of similar parts of this immense extension that we’re considering, it’s necessary that all these bodies, obstructing each other, all conspire, by their natural action and reaction, I mean, the mutual communication of all their individual movements, to move by a circular motion. This first consideration of the simplest data of our ideas, already shows us the need for Descartes’ vortices, that their number will be all the larger as the movements in a straight line of all the parts of extension were found to be in opposition to each other, they will have found it harder to conspire in the same movement… And that all those vortices will be greater, or there will be more parts which will have conspired in the same movement and whose parts will have had more force to continue their movements in a straight line...[840] Since only movement in a straight line is simple, we must consider this motion as that according to which all bodies ceaselessly tend to move, since God acts every day according to the simplest means, and since, in effect, bodies only move in a circular way because they meet with continual opposition to their direct movements. Thus, since all bodies aren’t of the same weight, and since the largest ones have more ability to continue their movements in a straight line than others, it’s easy to see that the smallest of all bodies must be towards the center of the vortex and the larger ones towards the circumference, since the lines that are conceived of as being made by the motions of the bodies, which are towards the circumference, are more to the right than those made the bodies which are toward the center. If one thinks again that each part of this matter couldn’t have moved at first and met with constant opposition to its movement, without being made round and having its angles knocked off, it will be easy to see that this whole extent is composed only of two sorts of bodies: of round balls, which constantly turn on their center in many different ways, and which, aside from their individual motions, are also carried by the movement of the vortex and in a very fluid and highly agitated manner[841], which will have been begotten by the friction of the balls mentioned above, which, aside from the circular motion common to all the parts of the vortex, will also have its own motion in a nearly straight line, from the center of the vortex towards its circumference, by intervals the balls that grant them free passage; so that their motion will be in a spiral line. Since this fluid matter, which Descartes calls the first element, is divided into many smaller parts, which have far less power to continue their motion in a straight line, that the balls or the second element, it is evident that this first element must be in the center of the vortex and in the intervals between the parts of the second, as that the parts of the second must fill the rest of the vortex, and approach its circumference relative to size or power they have to continue their motion in a straight line.

  As for the shape of all the vortices, there is no doubt[842], according to what has just been said, that the distance from one pole to the other is far smaller than the line that crosses the equator. And if we consider that the vortices surround each other and press on each other in an unequal manner, we’ll also see clearly that their equator is a short and irregular line, which might be close to an ellipse.

  This is how these things are, which are naturally presented to the mind, when contemplated carefully as to what must happen to the parts of extension which ceaselessly tend to move in a straight line, that is, by the simplest of all motions; and if one wishes to suppose something that seems worthy of the wisdom and power of God, that is, that He suddenly made everything, as they would be arranged with time, according to the simplest means, and that He also preserves them by the same natural laws, and also apply our thoughts with the things we see, we might judge that the Sun is the center of the vortex, that the physical light which it scatters everywhere is nothing but the continual effect of the little balls that tend to separate from the center of the vortex, and that this light must be communicated instantaneously across immense spaces, because, since everything is full of these balls, it’s impossible to press on one without pressing on all the rest which are opposed to it. We must expect, therefore, that there are many vortices similar to the one we have just described in a few words; that the centers of these vortices are the stars, which are like so many Suns, that the vortices surround each other, and that they are adjusted to cause least harm to each other with their movements, but that things couldn’t have come to this point without the weakest vortices being drawn and, as it were, swallowed up by the stronger ones.

  If we accept that a single vortex[843], due to its size and force and its advantageous position, can gradually ruin, envelop, and ultimately draw many vortices and even those which have overcome other ones, it will be necessary that, since the planets which are made in the centers of these vortices have entered the large vortex that will have defeated them, finding an equilibrium with an equal volume of matter in which they swim, so that if these planets are unequal as to their solidity, they will be at an unequal distance from the center of the vortex in which they will swim; and if two plants happen to have nearly the same force to continue their motion in a straight line, or a planet drags into its little vortex one or many other smaller plants that it will have defeated, according to our way of conceiving the formation of all things, then these little planets will turn around the largest one, and the largest one on its own center, and all these planets will be carried along by the movement of the great vortex at a nearly equal distance from its center.

  We are obliged[844], if we would follow the lights of reason, if we would thus arrange the parts of the world that we imagine is formed by the simplest means; for all that has just been said is based only on one’s idea of extension, the parts of which are thought to tend to move by the simplest motion, which is in a straight line. And when we examine according to the effects whether we’re mistaken in seeking to explain things by their causes, we are as it were surprised to see that the phenomena of the celestial bodies are perfectly harmonious with what has just been said; for we see that all the planets that are inside a small vortex turn on their own center like the Sun, that they all swim in the vortex of the Sun and around the Sun, that the smallest or the least solid ones are the nearest to the Sun, and that the more distant solids, and that there are also things like comets, which can’t stay inside the Sun’s vortex… If we examine the nature of the bodies that are down here, we must[845] first think that, since the first element is composed of an infinite number of different shapes, the bodies which would have been formed by the assembly of the parts of this element, will be of many sorts. The parts of some will be ramified, those of others will be long, those of others will look round, but irregular in every way. If their ramified parts are quite large, they will be hard, but flexible and without spring like gold. If their parts are less large, they will be soft or fluid, like gums, fats, oils. But if their parts are delicate in a different
way, they will be like air. If the long parts of the other bodies are large and inflexible, they will be prickly, incorruptible, and easy to dissolve, like salts. If these same parts are flexible, they will be insipid like waters. If they have parts that are coarse and irregular in all directions, they will be like the earth and stones. Finally, there will be bodies of many different natures, and there won’t be two that are completely the same. These shapes will never combine in the same way in two different bodies.

  Whatever shape these bodies have, if they have bodies large enough to allow the second element passage in all directions, they will be transparent like air, water, glass; and whatever shape these bodies have, if the first element completely surrounds some parts of them and agitates them strongly and promptly enough to repel the second element on all sides, they will be luminous like flame. If these bodies repel all the second element that clashes with them, they will be quite white, they will receive it without rebuffing it, they will be quite black, and finally, if they do repel it, while modifying it in various ways, they will have many different colors.

  For those with heavier or lighter positioning, i.e., those with less ability to continue their movement in a straight line, will be the closest to the center like metals; earth, water, air will be more remote, and all bodies will hold the position we see them in, because they must have placed even further from the center of the Earth that they will have more motion. And if anyone wonders why, towards the centers of the vortices, coarse bodies are heavy and why they’re lighter when they’re further away, this is because the coarse bodies receive their motion from the subtle matter that surrounds them and in which they swim. Now, this subtle matter[846] presently moves in a circular line, and tends only to move in a straight line, and it communicates to the coarse bodies, which it carries along its course, this circular movement, without communicating to them its effort to distance itself in a straight line, except to the degree that this effort is an outcome of the movement that it communicates to them; but, because the subtle matter which is near the center of the vortex has far more motion than it uses to circulate, which it doesn’t communicate to the coarse bodies that it drags that its motion which is circular and common to all the parts, and that if the coarse bodies had, besides, more movements than that which is common to the vortex, they would soon lose it while communicating it to the little bodies they meet, it is evident that the coarse bodies near the center of the vortex don’t have as much motion as the matter in which they swim, of which each part moves in many different ways, aside from the circular and common motion. But if the coarse bodies have fewer motions, they certainly make fewer efforts to go in a straight line, and if they make fewer efforts, they are forced to make way for those who make more, and consequently to return towards the center of the vortex, that is, that they are all the heavier as they are more solid. But when coarse bodies are quite far from the center of the vortex, as the movement of subtle matter is then quite intense, due to its using nearly all its motion in turning around the center of the vortex, the bodies have all the more motion as they are more solid, since they go with the same speed as the subtle matter in which they swim, thus they no longer have the power to continue their movement in a straight line. So that the coarse bodies, at a certain distance from the center of the vortex, are all the lighter as they are more solid, Descartes[847] know that, to properly understand the nature of things, he needed to consider them in their origin and birth; that he always had to begin by those which are simplest and go from the beginning to the principles; that there was no need to worry whether God had formed all things gradually by the simplest means or if He had established them all at once; but in whatever way God formed them, if he would know them properly he would have to consider them, from the beginning, in their principles, only being careful afterward about whether one’s thoughts agreed with what God would have made. He knew that the laws of nature, by which God preserves all His works in the order and situation in which they subsist, are the same as those by which He was able to form and arrange them, for it is evident to everyone who observes things attentively, that if God hadn’t arranged all things all at once in the way they would be arranged by time, the whole order of things would be overturned, since the laws of conservation would be contrary to those of creation. If all things kept the order in which we find them, it’s because the laws of motion, which keep them in this order, have been able to bestow it on them. And if God[848] had given them an order different from the way they were ordered by the laws of motion, then everything would be ruined and ordered, by the force of these laws, according to the order we see them now holding.

  86. EVEN THE CARTESIANS ARE OBLIGED TO RECOGNIZE THAT THE WORKS OF NATURE COULD HAVE BEEN FORMED AND BROUGHT BY THEMSELVES INTO THEIR PRESENT STATE, BY THE MOVEMENT OF THE PARTS OF MATTER.

  According to the doctrine of the Author I just quoted at length, and which doctrine is common to all the Cartesians, who are the most sensible of all Philosophers, it is clear and evident that the formation of this universe and that the production of all the works of nature, and even their ordering, their arrangement, their positioning, and all that is most beautiful, most perfect in them could be done, as I’ve said, by the forces nature alone, i.e., by the motive force of the parts of matter, variously configured, variously combined, variously moved, variously linked together and variously modified with each other. For the Philosophers, as good God-cultists and Christ-cultists, fail to see that it is necessary of any other thing than that, or consequently of any intelligence to produce all the effects I’ve discussed, since they specifically state that if a God hadn’t arranged them suddenly as they are, that they would have been arranged over time thanks to motion. And not only do they say that they would be arranged in this way over time by the force and the laws of motion, but they also directly say that if God had established them in a different order from the one brought about by these laws of motion, that all things would have been upended, and would be set, by the force of these laws, into their present order. It is thus clear, according to the doctrine of our famous God-cultist and Christ-cultist Cartesians, that the production, order, and arrangement, as amazing as you like, of all the works of nature, in no way show or prove the existence of a supremely perfect Intelligence, and consequently, they can’t demonstrate or prove the existence of an omnipotent God, if He is considered the creator of matter and the one who set it in motion.

  87. CONSEQUENTLY, THEY MUST ALSO RECOGNIZE THAT MATTER SET ITSELF IN MOTION, WHICH IS, HOWEVER, CONTRARY TO THEIR VIEW.

  Now, I’ve previously shown that matter can’t have been created, and that it can only have received its motion from itself; thus, the necessary conclusion is that there is nothing in all nature that demonstrates or proves the Existence of an all-powerful and infinitely perfect God, and consequently, it must be said that there truly is none, and that all the works of nature were only made, and still are made every day, by the natural and blind laws of motion, which is in the parts of matter, of which they are composed. But how the author of the Recherche de la vérité felt able to say that if this God hadn’t arranged everything in nature all at once that they would have been arranged over time, all the order of things would be upset and that if He had placed them in a different order from what the laws of motion imposed, that they would all have been ruined and that they would place, by the force of these laws into the order where we see them presently. For this author contradicts himself here and manifestly confuses himself; for although he claims that matter can’t have any motion inherently, and that all it does have necessarily came to it from God, the first author of motion, he couldn’t say that anything would have been arranged by itself with time, or that anything would be brought to ruin if God had placed them in a different order than what was brought about by the laws of motion. He couldn’t even say that there were any other laws of motion than those God would have established, or that the laws of motion would have had the power of setting all things into their presently visible
order; for it is clear and evident that things couldn’t be arranged by themselves into another order than the one God put them into if they didn’t have any inherent power of motion, and even if the motion they might have of themselves wasn’t stronger than that which God would have deigned to grant them. Since, then, he recognizes that all things would have been arranged by themselves over time into their present order, and that if God had placed them in another order, they would have been brought to ruin and that they would have been brought, by the force of the laws of their motion, into their present order, he should therefore also recognize that matter would have had an inherent power of motion, and that the natural laws of its motion would even have been stronger than those of motion which they might have received from God, since the natural laws of its motion would have had the power to overcome all other things and put them into a different state than the way God arranged them. In light of this, it’s obvious that this author contradicts himself here[849] and clearly shows his own view, which is that matter has an inherent motive force, in which he finds himself, unawares, obliged to recognize and confess the truth which he’s doing his best to fight; it’s certainly the force of the truth itself that brings this about. So much so that we might, on this occasion, believe that when the truth is under attack, it can distinguish itself by escaping its own enemies and those who hate it; i.e., those who deny and fight against it[850], salutem ex inimicis nostris inimicis et de manu omnium qui oderunt nos. Which clearly shows, as I said, that all the works of nature are not made from the start and are even now by anything but the natural and blind laws of the motion of the parts of matter of which they are composed, and consequently that there is nothing in nature that remains, or which proves the existence of an all-powerful and infinitely perfect God. It’s vain for them to say that the visible things of this world bear the stamp and character of a wholly divine wisdom.