zyo ESSAYS ann OBSERVATIONS 
ARTICLE Il. 
Some Remarks on the Laws of Motion, and the 
Inertia of Matter; by JoHN STEWART, 
M. D. Fellow of the Royal College of Pbhy- 
~ ficians and Profeffor of natural Philofo- 
phy in the Univerfity of Edinburgh. 
HE Laws of motion, as delivered 
by Sir Ifaac Newton, are all founded 
on. the fuppofition, that body of it- 
felf is abfolutely inaGtive. And inactivity is 
now commonly afcribed to matter as one of 
its general properties; body being defined 
to be whatever is extended, impenetrable, 
divifible, moveable, and inactive. At the 
fame time, every one knows, that active 
pve are continually employed through all 
the 
of animals, the produdtion and growth of 
rts of nature. The life and motion 
vegetables, the attractions of gravitation and 
-cohefion, with other inftances of the fame 
kind, are always prefent to our view. 
PuI- 
