28 ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. Book L 



there is a poiver of fnfferlng^ as well as of doing ; and thefe two 

 powers correfpond to one another *. 



As from habit refults capahiUty^ and from capahility faculty ^ fo itoxx\facuU 

 ty refults energy^ which is the faculty exercifed or produced into action. 

 But this energy ^'w\i\z\\ is the reiult of habit diud faculty formed, is to be 

 diiiinguifhed from thofe energies by which the habit or J acuity is ac* 

 quired. Thus, the energies of a perlon who learns any art or fcience, 

 are different from the energies of that art or fcience, after he has 

 learned it. And, in the fame manner, the energies or operations of 

 nature, by which any natural fubfiance is formed, are different from 

 the operations of that fubfiance after it is formed. Of the firft kind 

 are the energies of 7?iotion) which, as I have faid, is a palfage from one 

 ftate to another. But the other kind of energies, though they be a 

 change likewife from a ftate of re/ly to a flate of aciivity, and therefore 

 fall under the general definition of motion ; yet they are a different 

 fpecies ot fnotiott, commonly expreffed by the term a^ionf. 



This leads me to inquire into the nature of this univerfal a^iont 

 and its correfpondent,^;>^o«, which run through the whole of nature ; 

 for every thing, as was faidj is deftined by nature to slOl or fuffer, 

 or both J ; and, where there is an agent, there mufl of neceffity be a 

 patient, that is, fomething on which the operation is performed. 



And 



* Milton, therefore, has made Belial fay very properly, 



*' to /lifer, as to ddy 



Our ftrength is equal, nor the law unjuft, 



That fo ordains," Par. Loft. lib. 2. v. 199. 



And, from many other p;iflages of this poem, it appears that Milton was very well 

 acquainted with this higheft philorophy of which we treat. 



t i>ee Ariftotie's Metaphyfics, lib. 9. chap. 6. where power and energy are very well 

 contrafted together, and iiluftrat-d by many examples. 



\ Archytas yrtet rev oTof, d treatifv! prcftrved to us by Simplirius, in his ccmmentary 

 «pon Arlllotlc's Caiegoncs, has laid, in a paflage quoted by Mr Harris, in his Philofo- 



phica! 



