Newton, Leibnitz, and Boscovich to the Atomic Theory. 55 



liberty under no law but that of its own activity. Here, however, look- 

 ing only to it in its grand cosmical function, as the expression of the 

 Divine will to us ai'ticulate with regard to His works, as the impression 

 of the Divine immutability upon Nature, and as such, the Cosmotec- 

 tonic law, we may deduce from it the following consequences, by which 

 we reach Body or Matter as commonly conceived, with which alone we 

 have to do here : — 



Of Ineetia. 



I. Any substance considered merely as such (t. e., merely as a thing of 

 which nought is predicated but existence in a certain position in space, 

 and mobility under force applied from without), if now at rest, must, 

 under the law of assimilation, assimilate itself to itself in successive 

 moments of its existence. It must, therefore, continue at rest. And if 

 it be put in motion, and thus once constituted a moving thing, it must, 

 under the same law, assimilate itself in like manner in its every succes- 

 sive element of motion to the first, and therefore it must continue in 

 motion. Moreover, its first element of motion, as it is simply a change 

 in space from one point to the next adjacent, cannot but be an element 

 of a straight line. And it is accomplished in a certain time. But 

 under the law of assimilation, it must in every similar and equal element 

 of time following, accomplish a similar and equal element of motion. It 

 is obvious, therefore, that the whole motion must be both rectilinear 

 and uniform. And thus a particle of substance conceived as devoid to 

 the utmost of all specific properties, and only subjected to the law of 

 assimilation, gives us a particle possessing inertia, and thus brings us at 

 once by a long step near the conception of body or matter. 



Or Elasticity. 



II. But any substance or thing of limited extent, existing in space, 

 must necessarily possess a form (meaning by form the confines between 

 that thing and the surrounding space), and let any such thing which 

 is intrinsically amorphous, that is, wholly passive as to form, or purely 

 plastic, be placed under the law of assimilation, and it follows, that 

 whatever the form which it happens to possess, when put under that 

 law, to that (its original form) it must assimilate itself in successive 

 moments of its existence ; and that form, therefore, it must tend to 

 maintain and to restore when any forces applied from without tend to 

 disturb or to alter it — yet not without a homage demanded by the same 

 law to any new form which may be transiently impressed. It must assimi- 

 late itself to the latter in alternate moments. And with this recipro- 

 cating action, the phenomenon of inertia conspiring, there must result 



