PHYSICAL AND LITERARY. 51 



lowing particillars, and we fliall have an 

 exa<5l defcriptidn of gravity. Firft, That 

 it have the effe6l of beginning motion, as 

 well as of continuing it ; and, next, That 

 itdire<5l its body not in a ftreight line, but 

 towards every body great and fniall with" 

 in its fphere of adivity. 



The gi-and difficulty that puzzles fo** 

 reign philofdphers is, to admit of a powdr 

 in a body tt> draw other bodies to it ; fop 

 this is their conception of attracElion, fug- 

 gelled by the term itfelf. They obferve, 

 that fuch a power is inconfiftent with a 

 general maxim, that no being can a(5t 

 where it is riot ; whence they juftly con- 

 elude, that one body cannot adt upon an- 

 other 2Lt a diftance. It muft be confeffed, 

 that attradion is an unlucky term, fince 

 it has led philofophers into the above mi£^ 

 take ; tho' Sir Ifaac Newton cannot be 

 juftly blamed, who made ufe of a term 

 invented to his hand. By varying the 

 conception of attradlion, and by confider- 

 ing it as a power in matter not to drawr 

 <)ther bodies t6 it, but to move itfelf to- 

 wards other bodies, the difficulty vaniflies. 



If 



