Note 113 — Chapter IV · ON GOD

I. 316. ‘Sed demus fuisse talem materiam seu Atomorum temere volitantium infinitatem, annon difficultas est semper quomodo in tanta illa laxitate, et infinitate spatiorum tot Atomi convenerint ut illico potuerint se tam valide revincire, tam concinne disponere, absque revinciente et disponente causa? Nam quod animalia quidem adeo exquisite formentur, id habent ex seminibus ad certas formas comparatis: Atomi vero illa non se habuere ut semina: quatenus comparata magis ad gignendum Mundum, quam ad quidvis aliud non fuere.’ This passage deserves particular attention, because it shows how Gassendi sees that the necessity for going below determinate to indeterminate matter is one with the necessity for postulating a Creator: the Atom being nothing may be everything, but it need not be anything: the necessity falls outside the Atom as such.