There is no such thing as Providence, for Nature proceeds under irresistible laws, and in this respect the universe is only a vast automatic engine.

The vital force which pervades the world is what the illiterate call God.

The modifications through which all things are running take place in an irresistible way, and hence it may be said that the progress of the world is, under Destiny, like a seed, it can evolve only in a predetermined mode.
The soul of man is a spark of the vital flame, the general vital principle.

Like heat, it passes from one to another, and is finally reabsorbed or reunited in the universal principle from which it came.
Hence we must not expect annihilation, but reunion; and, as the tired man looks forward to the insensibility of sleep, so the philosopher, weary of the world, should look forward to the tranquillity of extinction.

Of these things, however, we should think doubtingly, since the mind can produce no certain knowledge from its internal resources alone.