16 ESSAYS ann OBSERVATIONS 
fwering the defigned purpofe, without be- 
ftowing further labour upon it. And there- 
fore, upon the whole, as we have no foun- 
dation, cither in reafon or experience, to de- 
ny activity to matter; I conclude, that the 
do&trine of the abfolute inertnefs of matter, 
is not only repugnant to truth, but tends, in 
an indirect manner, toarraign the deity of 
want of power or of wifdom, or of both. 
Of the VIS INStTA’ or VIS 
INERTIA. 
AVING thus brought our fubje& with- 
in bounds, by evincing that we have 
no occafion to fearch for any other im- 
mediate caufe of natural appearances than the - 
activity of matter itfelf; I thall proceed toex- 
amine fome of the powers of matter, fuch of 
them as are productive of the moft remarkable 
effects: and fhall begin with the wis infita, or 
vis inertia, that fignal property of matter, 
whereby, as philofophers teach, ‘ A body 
“* always 
