PHYSICAL ann LITERARY. 45 
ftance. In general, as we have no means to 
difcover power in any being but by the effects 
_ produced ; fo the nature and operation of the 
power are only to be difcovered by the fame 
means. ‘There is nothing in our conception 
of any power to confine its operations to one 
Jaw more than another. Aind this leads to the 
+ caufe of gravity or attraGtion. If we admit 
_of the vis infita, the operations of which may 
be varied in a thoufand different ways; it is 
equally eafy to conceive a power in matter by 
which every particle has a tendency to be u- 
nited with every other particle. ”Tis but va- 
trying the vis znfita in the two following parti- 
culars to have an exact defcription of gravity. 
Firft, That it have the effect of beginning 
motion, as well as of continuing it; and, next, 
That it direét the body to which it belongs, 
notin a ftreight line, but towards every body 
great and {mall within its {phere of adtivity. 
. THE grand difficulty which puzzles foreign 
philofophers is, to admit of a power ina body 
: | to draw other bodies toit; for this is their 
a conception of attraction, fuggefted by the 
" termitfelf. They obferve, that fuch a power 
is inconfiftent with a general maxim, that no 
_ being can act where it is not; which would 
, involve 
