S2 ESSAYS AND OBSERVATIONS 



If bodies a<fl upon each other by the 

 force of gravity, it is eafy to conceive that 

 the exertion of gravity Ihould be fainter 

 and fainter in proportion to the diilance; 

 but it is not fo eafily conceived that di' 

 fiance fliould have any influence, if the 

 gravity of each body be exerted within 

 itfelf, and not upon another body at a 

 diftance. This has the appearance of a 

 difliculty, and no more but the appear- 

 ance. If matter has a power to adl in any 

 one cafe, its adions may be varied by 

 any afCgnable law: And, in particular, 

 to imagine a power in a body impelling 

 it towards a body at hand, with a greater 

 force than towards one at a diftance, is, 

 in reality, not more difficult, than to i- 

 magine it exerting always the fame force, 

 without regard to diftance. 



It is not improbable, that the above 

 mentioned objedlion of a body's adling 

 where it is not, has led Leibnitz and other 

 foreign phllofopbers to adopt the vorti- 

 ces of Des Cartes, rather than Sir Ifaac 

 Newton's theory. Yet there cannot be 

 ecgQceived a more whimfical hypothefis, 

 ,, , than 



