$2 ESSAYS ann OBSERVATIONS 
felf ; that would betray an inclination) or ten- 
dency to one {tate preferably to another ; it 
would no longer appear equally indifferent 
to either, in which alone paffivity confifts. 
Tur molt general law of matter we dif-_ 
cover by experience is, that every effect con- 
tinues till deftroyed by (omething. Why then 
may not motion continue till it be deftroyed, 
as weil asthe magnitude, figure, colour, or 
any other property of body? or even as well 
as the very exiftence of matter? ‘* Motion 
“‘ig indeed a mode of exiftence different 
‘« from all others, nor can we compare it to 
«* any thing that is not motion*.” But that is 
no reafon why it fhould change of itfelf, any 
more than thefe other modes. If the conti- 
nuation of motion bore a nearer refemblance 
to the continuation of any other effect, would 
that render it any plainer? Motion is an effe& - 
‘fui generis; but we have an infinite variety 
of examples of its continuance. An active 
being preffes forwards a certain quantity of 
an impenetrable inactive fubftance: is there 
not fome effect produced here? fomething 
then communicated to it? The body is put 
in 
* Effay I. p. 18. 19. 
