Just as the Author of nature is the universal cause of all motion found in matter, so is He also the general cause of all natural inclinations found in minds; and just as all motion proceeds in a straight line [en ligne droite] unless it encounters particular external causes that influence its course and that by their opposition alter it so that it proceeds in a curved path, so all the inclinations that we have from God are right [droites] and could have no other end but the possession of good and of truth were there not some external cause that directed the impression of nature toward evil ends. Now it is this external cause that is the cause of all our evils, and that corrupts all our inclinations.
[Nicolas Malebranche, The Search After Truth, Lennon & Olscamp, trs. & eds., Cambridge University Press (New York 1997) p. 4.]
