NATURE, according to Mr. Boyle, has eight different significations ; it being used, 1. For the author of nature, whom the schoolmen call ?swum naturans, being the sank with God. 2. By the nature of a thing, we sometimes mean its essence ; that is, the attributes which make it what it is, whether the thing be corporeal or not ; as when we attempt to define the nature of a fluid, of a triangle, &c. 3. Sometimes we confound that which a man has by nature with what accrues to him by birth ; as when we say, that such a man is noble by nature. 4. Sometimes we take nature for an internal principle of motion ; as when we say, that a stone by nature falls to the earth. 5. Sometimes we understand by nature the established course of things. 6. Sometimes we take nature for an aggregate of powers belong ing to a body, especially a living one ; in which sense physicians say, that nature is strong, weak, or spent ; or that, in such and such diseases, nature left to herself will perform the cure. 7. Sometimes we use the term nature for the universe, or whole system of the corporeal works of God ; as when it is said of a phcenix, or chimera, that there is no such thing in nature. 8. Sometimes too, and that most commonly, we express by the word na ture a kind of semi-deity, or other strange kind of being.
If, says the same philosopher, I were to propose a notion of nature, less ambigu ous that; those already mentioned, and with regard to which many axioms, relat ing to that word, may he conveniently un derstood, I should first distinguish be tween the universal and the particulao present state, considered as a principle ; by virtue whereof they act and suffer, ac cording to the laws of motion prescribed by the author of all things. See the arti cles BODY, INERTIA, MOTION, &c. And this makes way for the other subordinate notion ; since the particular nature of an individual consists in the general nature, applied to a distinct portion of the uni verse; or, which is the same thing, it is a particular assemblage of the mecha nical properties of matter, as figure, mo tion, &c.
Those who desire a more particular discussion of each of these opinions, may consult Boyle's " Free Inquiry into the Vulgar Notion of Nature." By a mo dern French writer we have the following account of Nature. This word, which we so frequently employ, must only be re garded as an abridged manner of express.. ing, sometimes, the results of the laws to which the Supreme Being has subjected the universe ; at others, the collection of beings which have sprungfrom his hands. Nature, contemplated thus under its true aspect, is no longer a subject of cold and barren speculation with respect to morals: the study of its productions, or of its phe nomena, is no longer bounded to enlight ening the mind ; it affects the heart, by kindling therein sentiments of reverence and admiration at the sight of so many wonders, bearing such visible 'characters of an infinite power and wisdom. Such was the disposition,th at was cultivated by the great Newton, when, after having con sidered the mutual connection which sub sists between effects and their causes, which makes all the particulars concur to the harmony of the whole, he elevated his mind to the idea of a Creator and Prime Mover of matter, and enquired of himself why nature had made nothing in vain? whence it happens that the sun, and the planetary bodies, gravitate the one towards the other, without any in termediate dense matter ? and, how it could be possible, that the eye should be constructed without the knowledge of optics, or the organ of hearing without the intelligence of sounds ?