Sentence:  The result of the labours of philosophy appeared to be a total scepticism on the most important subjects of hu man duty and expectation. The irregular fears of a future state had been supplanted by the <WSD>materialism</WSD> of Epicurus; and this system—if system it may be called, which left them without a God, a providence, a morality, or a retribution—was the fashionable philosophy of the more cultivated classes. 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  The philosophical belief that nothing exists beyond what is physical.