/ 
76 ESSAYS ann OBSERVATIONS 
caufe. It hasa conftant fufceptibility of mo- 
tion, and a perfect facility in receiving it. 
But we may as well afk, why an inactive 
fubftance does not begin fome degree, of mo- 
tion of itfelf? as, why different powers are 
requifite to produce different motions? When 
people talk of the refifance of matter at reft, 
as of an aétive power, ftrugegling againft any 
agent, and actively oppofing it, they furely 
frame to themfeves fome notion of force an- 
tecedent to all experience; and, they would 
do well to inform the world, in what man- 
ner this idea was fuggefted to them. 
THE pajffive nature of body is abundantly 
manifeft, from its yielding to the leaft con- 
ceivable action. The leg of a fly moves the 
whole globe of the earth. A man indeed 
-cannot roll atun fo faft as he can a tennis- 
ball: and we may find a horfe able to draw 
a loaded cart two miles in the hour, who 
cannot be prevailed upon to draw it four 
miles in the fame time. But are not fuch 
common phacnomena as thefe more natu- 
rally accounted for, from the fluggifhnefs or 
inaCtivity of matter, than from its fuppofed 
activity? A great body fet in motion is one 
effet: a little body moved with the fame 
velocity 
