Chap. rr. ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. fi 



below, and round about us. They alfo mark that neceffary connec- 

 tion which there is, and mud be, in this univerfe, betwixt the two : 

 For, as there is fomething that is inovcd^ there mufl: of neceinty be 

 foniething that tJioves\ and lliis I call wi/zc/, v/hich is the author of all 

 motion, being that which moves all bodies, either immediately, or me- 

 diately by the intervention of other bodies ; that is, by w'lat we call 

 mechanifin. And, in this manner, motion is carried on, withv)ut cea- 

 fing, through the univerfe. 



Before I conclude this chapter, I cannot help taking notice of a very 

 great impropriety of fpeech which has crept into the tnglKh language, 

 (even the language of philofophers,) by which we confound ihQ pouucr 

 that moues the body, with the thing that is moved : For we fay, that 

 the body, which oidy is movcd^ moves ; confounding, in this way, 

 not only the grammatical fignification of the words, but the real di- 

 flindion of things ; and a diftindtion of no lefs importance to philofo- 

 phy and juft thinking, than that of body and viind. In languages n-.ore 

 perfect, and of more accurate expreffion, fuch as the Greek and La- 

 tin, this diftindion is always preferved : For x^vs* and y./>/j,T«» in Greek, 

 and movct and movettir in Latin, fignify things as different as anion 

 and pajfion. Now., as an impropriety of ^x/)r^zo;z leads naturally to an 

 impropriety of thinking, fuch confufion of the fignitication of words 

 ought carefully to be avoided, efpecially in an • age, when there is a 

 vifible tendency, in our philofophy, to confound body and mind^ and to 

 make every thing material. 



The definition that 1 have given of lody^ agrees very well wit!i tliat 

 vis inertiac which, by our modern philolbphcrs, is held to be of the 

 clTence of matter, and with that firft law of motion laid down by the 

 Newtonian philofophers, * That body is, by its nature, mtxtXy pa/Jivc,'' 

 fo as to be equally incapable of beginning motion^ when it reds, or 

 flopping it when it is once begun : For the one is an exertion of aidi- 

 vity as well as the other. But it is not fufficient to define body by 



B 2 pi^^ffii^iiy 



