u National Museum. 199 



relations of all objects of sense and reflection to the well- 

 being of animated individuals, and species subject ^ilso to 

 thought and voluntary ])o\ver — are eflects in which we tully 

 discover a power oonlroHing other powers : such as attrac- 

 tion, repulsion, or impulse, capable of comprehending all 

 such relations; to which power all animated beings are 

 consequently related, as effects to a supreme cause. 



1. We perceive changes in the objects of our senses and 

 of our consciousness ; motion beginning and ending ; forms 

 now distinct, now united ; now dissolved, now restored. 



2. When we move our own limbs, or give motion to, or 

 restrain the motion of, another body, we are conscious of 

 exertion preceding the motion. 



The degree of exertion required to move or to restrain the 

 motion of any power, is called power. 



3. This exertion is commonly preceded by thought and 

 will : of which also wc are conscious. 



Change implies motion of the sense, or of the object : 

 hence all perceived or supposed causes of change are inclu- 

 ded under the common or general name — power. 



4. When objects are perceived to move one towards 

 another with velocity, continually increasing as they ap- 

 proach, we say they are moved by pow:ers of mutual attrac- 

 tion. 



5. When bodies so moved become fixed in contact, we 

 «ay they cohere by powers of mutual attraction. 



6. Cohesion is broken or dissolved by new, superior, and 

 opposite attractions, orby communicated motion frombodics 

 moved by power, greater than that which held the cohering 

 bodies together. 



Experience shows that the continuance of an cflect may 

 be preserved bv a less degree of power than liiat which was 

 required to pctrducc it. 



The communication of motion, whether by the exertion 

 of living beings, or from any moving body to another body, 

 cither moving at liie same time or at rest, is called impulse. 



7. When bodies arc perceived to recede from one another 



in right lines, with velocities decreasing in proportion to 



N 4 their 



