''Des singularités de la nature'' is a book on natural history by the French philosopher and author

Voltaire François-Marie Arouet (; 21 November 169430 May 1778) was a French Enlightenment writer, historian, and philosopher. Known by his ''nom de plume'' M. de Voltaire (; also ; ), he was famous for his wit, and his criticism of Christianity—es ...

, first published in 1768. In it, he defends

Preformationism In the history of biology, preformationism (or preformism) is a formerly popular theory that organisms develop from miniature versions of themselves. Instead of assembly from parts, preformationists believed that the form of living things exist, ...

, the idea that organisms develop from tiny versions of themselves. He defends the idea of a

supreme being In monotheistic thought, God is usually viewed as the supreme being, creator, and principal object of faith. Swinburne, R.G. "God" in Honderich, Ted. (ed)''The Oxford Companion to Philosophy'', Oxford University Press, 1995. God is typically ...

, and the idea that many features of the natural world have been made to benefit people, including noses for smelling and mountains for forming the landscape.

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