The surface of the earth, adorned with its verdure, is the inexhaustible and common food from which man and animals draw their subsistence. Every thing in nature that has life, is nourished by that which vegetates; and vegetables, in turn, exist on the spoil of every thing that has lived or vegetated. To live, it is necessary to destroy; and it is only by the destruction of beings, that animals can live themselves and multiply. God, in creating the first individuals of each species of animals and vegetables, has not only given form to the dust of the earth, but also gave it animation, by inclosing in each individual a greater or less quantity of active principles, organs, living molecules, incapable of being destroyed, and common to all organized beings. The molecules pass from body to body, and are equally the causes of life, and the continuation of it, to the nourishment and growth of each individual. After the dissolution of the body, after its reduction to ashes, these organic molecules, on which death has no power, survive, circulate in the universe, pass into other beings and produce life and nourishment. Every production, every renovation, or increase by generation, by nutrition, or by growth, implies a preceding destruction, a conversion of substance, a translation of these organic molecules which never multiply, but always subsisting in an equal number, render nature always equally alive, the earth equally peopled, and ever equally resplendent with the primitive glory of Him who created it. To take beings in general, the total quantity of life is always then the same; and death, which seems to destroy all, destroys nothing of that primitive life which is common to all organized beings. Like all other subordinate powers, death attacks only individuals, strikes only the surface, and destroys the form; but can have no power over matter, and can do no harm to Nature, which only appears to more advantage. She does not permit him to destroy the species, but leaves individuals to his power, to shew herself independent both of Death and Time; to exercise every instant, her power, which is always active; to manifest her plenitude by her fertility, and to make the universe, in reproducing and renewing its beings, a theatre always filled, and a spectacle always new.