46 ESSAYS avn OBSERVATIONS 
involve this evident abfurdity, to feparate the 
being from its actions. And, from thefe pre- 
mifes, they juftly conclude, that one body 
cannot act upon another at a diftance. It 
muft be confeffed, that attraction is an un- 
lucky term, fince it has led philofophers into 
the above miftake ; tho’ Sir I/aac Newton can- 
not be juftly blamed, who made ufe of a 
term invented to his hand. By varying the 
conception of attraction, and by confidering 
jit asa power in matter not to draw other bo- 
dies to it, but to move itfelf towards other bo- 
dies, the difficulty vanithes. 
Bur upon this idea of attraction or gravi- 
ty, it may be fuggefted, that there can be 
no reafon, why the power in exerting itfelf, 
fhould keep pace with the diftance of the ob- 
ject towards which its force ts directed. The 
diftance of the object, it will be faid, can 
have no effeét to diminifh the force, when, 
by the fuppofition, the action of the one bo- 
dy is not exerted upon the other, but upon 
itfelf. This has the appearance of a difficulty, 
and no more but the appearance. If matter 
has a power to act in any one cafe, its acti- 
ons may be varied by any affignable law. And 
in particular to imagine a power in a body 
impelling | 
