Chap. II. ANTIE NT METAPHYSICS. 9 



This is the didinclion betwixt body and mini made by Plato in his 

 tenth book of Laws, [p. 951. d Jeq. editio Ficini). And, as to Ari- 

 ftotle, he has made motion ib eiFential to body^ that, by it, he has both 

 defined and divided body : For he has defined a phyftcal body (for fo 

 he calls what I call fimpk body, in oppofition to ',Av,or matter, which 

 I fliall fpeak of afterwards,) to be " that which has the principle of 

 motion in itfelf*." Now, according to Ariftotle, motion is in that which 

 is tno'ued, not that which 7noves t- And, as he has thus defined 

 body by motion, fo he has divided it in the fame manner ; for, 

 fays he, fome bodies move in a circle, that is, by a motion re- 

 volving into itfelf, which, being the mofl excellent kind of mo- 

 tion, belongs to the moft excellent bodies, viz. the celeftial : O- 

 thers move in a ftraight line, either towards the centre, or from it. 

 And, laflly, others have a motion mixed of the circular and redineal ; 

 fuch is the motion of animals. And, as thefe are all the kinds of mo- 

 tion pofTible, fo thefe are all the different bodies that can exift J. 

 This is Ariftotle's notion of body \ and, as to the principle of motion, or 

 moving principle, which he fuppofes to be in all bodies, it is what he 

 calls nature'^ ; and, that he believed natwe to be a principle quite dif- 

 ferent from body, is evident, both from his books of Phyfics and Meta- 

 phyfics. And indeed, the main defign of his whole phllofophy of na- 

 ture is, to prove, that tlie firfi principle of motion in the univerie is 

 an immaterial principle, eternal, iin:r>oveable, and unchangeable ; 

 for with this he concludes both his Phyfics and Metaphyiics. 



' And here the reader may perceive the reafon why I hive faid, that 

 body does not exiil by itfelf, but always united with mhid. For, as 

 all body, as far as we know, is in motion, or has a tendency to move, 



B and, 



the irotive principle in ?.ll bodies, is not commonly in Grctk called -^vxri- But 

 Ariftotle, in a pallage which I fliall afterwards quot^^, hyi th.;c it is 'wx.T.f ^'f/ji. . 

 • Phyfic. lib. ". cap. i- De Coelo. lib. I. cap. 2 



t Phyfic. lib. 3. c;ip. ?. % i'b. i- Dc Cof lo, c<ip. 2. 



§ Phyfio. lib. 2. cap. 1. He makes 72<2/?/r<? al fo tc be the princip'e of r^'^f in Louies 

 by which I fuppofe he means, that thofe bodios which h< Calls heavy, that is, which 

 move toward the centre of the eaich, would rejl if they were thferc 



