INTRODUCTION. iii 



terlal and mechanical caufe, they muft be fuppofed to be produced by 

 Mind. In the heavens, tbefe philofophers proceeded in the fame man- 

 ner as on earth : And, as the motions of the celeftial bodies cannot 

 be accounted for by any material and mechanical caiifes, they maintain- 

 -ed, that they are moved diredly and immediately by Mind, without 

 having recourle to hypothefes of gravitating and projedile forces. 



This antient fyftem has this advantage over the Newtonian, that it 

 is more univerfal ; fo univerfal, that it is well entitled to the name of 

 philojophy^ and thtfrji philofophyy as it explains the principle of all 

 motion, and all produdion in the heavens and in the earth. 



Nor are we to imagine that, becaufe the antients made Mind the 

 ^reat agent in Nature, and an eflential part of the fyftem of Nature, 

 they did therefore confound phyftology and theology ; but, on the con- 

 trary, they diftinguifhed, I think properly, betwixt the two, and 

 fet the proper bounds to each of them, making theology to be the 

 dodrine of Mind feparated from all Body, while phyftology explains 

 the operation of Mind in Body, by which all the natural operations are 

 produced, either immediately, or by the intervention of other bodies; 

 for it cannot he denied that there is a great deal of tnechamjm in Na- 

 ture, that ia, motion produced by the adion of Body upon Body. 



With refped to Experimental Philofophy, as it is called, I am very 

 far from denying the ufe of it ; but I would have the gentlemen who 

 value themfelves fo much upon this kind of manual philofophy, todl- 

 ftingulfh betwixt the phaenomena and the principles of Nature, and 

 not Imagine that the latter, as well as the former, are objeds of fenfe, 

 to be dlfcovered by chymical analyfis, or feen through a microfcopc. 

 They (hould confider themfelves as the hiftorians of Nature, who, by 

 great attention, and minute obfervation, inveftigate fads which efcapc 



a 2 the 



