He maintains the sky to be what men call Jupiter; the air, which pervades the sea, to be Neptune; and the earth, Ceres.

In like manner he goes through the names of the other Deities.

He says that Jupiter is that immutable and eternal law which guides and directs us in our manners; and this he calls fatal necessity, the everlasting verity of future events.

But none of these are of such a nature as to seem to carry any indication of divine virtue in them.

These are the doctrines contained in his first book of the Nature of the Gods.