1822.) 
property of matter or not,’ it is certainly, 
by the actual constitution of nature, ori- 
ginally and indefeasibly impressed upon it ; 
and as rest does not exist‘in nature, but 
may be considered, in a vulgar sense, as a 
-fallacy of the senses, and, in a philosophi- 
cal sense, as an abstraction of the mind, it 
follows that what is called the vis inertia 
of matter is not a resistance to a change 
from rest to motion, or from motion to 
rest, but a resistance to acceleration or 
retardation, or to change of direction.” 
He rises into the sublimity of philosophical 
superstition when he treats about attrac- 
tion and repulsion. ‘*The active nature 
of matter (says he) is farther proved by 
those attractions and repulsions which 
amiversally take place among its parts, 
however near or remote; and every in- 
stance of motion within the cognizance of 
our senses, in the bodies around is, is refer- 
rible, either in itself or its cause, to some 
mode of attraction or repulsion. Mecha- 
nical impulse being the most familiar 
«cause of motion in the ordinary events of 
life, is apt to be considered as the most 
simple and original cause of it ; but it is ob- 
vious, upon reflection, that it cannot origi- 
mate in itself, and that all collisions are 
produced either by the efficiency of living 
animals, that is, by muscular action, or by 
means of some operation of nature, de- 
pending on attraction or repulsion.—At- 
traction and repulsion may be considered 
as one principle, inasmuch as they are 
both expressive of that active state origi- 
nally inherent in matter, and because any 
two particles acting upon each other 
either attract or repei, according to their 
distance, their temperature and affinities ; 
and this is so universal an agent in nature, 
that some modern philosophers have made 
it absorb, as it were, every other power 
and property of matter. The late Father 
Boscovich, of Milan, about forty years 
ago, advanced a very bold doctrine to this 
effect, alleging’ with great strength of 
argument, illustrated by geometrical rea- 
soning, that there does not exist in nature 
any such thing as impenetrable extended 
particles ; and he deduces all the pheno- 
mena.of the materia) world from one prin- 
ciple, which supposes it constituted of 
points having several spheres of attraction 
and repulsion, which, being variously ar- 
ranged-and combined, produce the differ- 
ent forms and properties of matter, and 
its several powers. of attraction, whether 
chemical affinity, cohesion, or gravitation. 
Whether this hypothesis is. founded in 
truth or not, it would appear, from the 
reasonings made use of, that all the rela- 
tive properties of matter may be acconnt- 
ed for, though we abstract from every 
other consideration but attraction and 
repulsion.”—-We wonder, as the learned 
doctor is so fond of quoting authorities, 
that he did not rather, with Sir H. Davy, 
Literary and Critical Proémium. 
453 
adopt the Cartesian doctrines of rotatory 
atoms in the formation of expansive gases, 
—a doctrine which explains all the pheno- 
mena without the absurd agency of attrac- 
tion and repulsion. In truth, though 
every page of this work proves the author 
to be a most able’ experimental practi- 
tioner, yet he is the sorriest philosopher 
we ever met with, and his doctrines can 
have no credit out of the Royal Societies, 
of which, we have no doubt, he is a very 
distinguished member. 
Joun GAGE, esq. F.S.A. of Lincoln’s- 
Inn, has recently published the History 
and Antiquities of Hengrave, in Suffolk, a 
work containing many curious particulars 
relating to various periods of our histori- 
cal annals, and to the characters and pos- 
sessions of its owners, In this very cir- 
cumstantial account of the foundation, 
progress, and changes incident to many of 
our old English halls,—of which few ac- 
counts have escaped the wreck of time,— 
we think we are to look for the chief 
attractions and interest of Mr. G.’s very 
able and interesting researches. He is en- 
titled to all praise for the accuracy and 
extent of his historical and antiquarian 
labours, discovering every existing infor- 
mation applicable to the subject in which 
he was engaged. We have a singular ca- 
talogue of the goods and chattels of Sir 
Thomas Kytson, taken after his death, by 
regular appraisers, in 1603, with a rare 
inventory of ‘‘Instrewments and Bookes 
of Musicke preserved in the Chamber 
where yé Musicyons playe,” giving us a 
high opinion of the knight’s elegant and 
luxurious taste and establishment at the 
period in which he flonrished. We are 
sorry we cannot give even a specimen of 
them here ; as well as the list of original 
portraits, old books, and “ tyrants in ta- 
pestry,’ with which the walls of many of 
our old mansions used to abound. ‘There 
follows a lively description of the beauties 
of Hengrave, of the hall, and of the ancient 
church, whose antiquity, from its circular 
towers, is judged’ to be very remote, being 
no longer appropriated to religious pur- 
poses, and serving only as a family reposi- 
tory of mortal remains, mouldering together 
with the last vestiges of its architectural 
form. From the monument, however, 
which he discovered, Mr. G. has contrived 
to give us several beautiful plates ; and the 
tombs of Margaret countess of Bath, and 
of Sir Thomas Kytson the younger, are of 
a splendid and magnificent kind. We 
have also a very amusing history of the old 
lords of the manor ; Hengrave, in the time 
of the Confessor Edward, being part of 
the territory of St. Edmond, which we 
learn from Dugdale arose from a very ut- 
usual stretch of the sacred prerogative, 
belonging to the abbot of blessed memory. 
It appears that in the twelfth century the 
manor was granted by the monks of that 
powerful 
