PHYSICAL A'ND LITERARt. Si 



** the fame power might comitiunicate a 

 " great velocity or a fmall velocity to any 

 ** body ^." Mr De Mairan, in Mem, de 

 CAcad, 1728, feems to entertain the fame 

 opinion, when he afks, If the inertia of 

 matter (which he explains to be thait re- 

 L fiftance which body makes to its being 

 " drawn out of reft, and receiving a deter- 

 mined motion, and which is more or lefs 

 in proportion to its mafs) may not be the 

 cffedL of fome motion ; and if it ought not 

 to be conceived as an adlual force, ading 

 by fome feeret mechanifm ? Arid the au- 

 thor of an EJfaj' on Spirit^ lately publilhedj 

 maintains, in like manner, that there is in 

 atflive refinance to the beginning of mo- 

 tion in every body ; tho' indeed he attri- 

 btites that adivity t6 an immaterial caufe. 

 And MefT. Buffon and Needham too, who 

 have carried the adivity of matter to the 

 ^ highefl pitch, have drawn one argument 

 K in fupport of their fyftcm from the reliit- 

 ■t arice cf body td motion. Needham's Ob^ 

 ^■felrvations, p. 435". 

 H Vol. I. L To 



^^B * EiTay r. p. 9. CI. 2^. 



i 



