Chap. IV. ANTIENTMETAPHYSICS. 29 



And we will begin with patience or fuffering, in Greek -^n^yjiu and 

 which, as well as f?iotio7i, belongs to the general idea of change ; for 

 we can conceive no fuffering without fome change in the patient. But, 

 then, what change ? Is it a change from place to place ? or from great- 

 er in quantity to lefs, or vice uerja ? or is it only a change of quality ? 

 And this laft is the truth, according to the doctrine of Ariftotle, and 

 his commentators. For, in their language, where a thing changes 

 place, or increafes or diminiJJocs^ it is moved, but does not. fuffer, unlefs 

 it be changed in quality. Suffering, therefore, is only in one category, 

 viz. the category of quality, whereas ^notion, as we have fcen, is in 

 three categories, viz. quantity, quality, and ivhere ; the neceffary con- 

 fequence of which is, that every thing thdit fuffers is moved, but not 

 *uice verfa : So that the idea of motion is more general than that of 

 fuffering, and comprehends it. Again, as aSling zx\djuffering are rela- 

 tives, of which one cannot exift without the other, and muft necefTarily 

 ccrrefpond in every particular, it follows that, to a6l is to operate a 

 change of quality in the patient *. 



Farther, as much as the agent a^s, {o much muft the p2it\cntfuffer; 

 or, in other words, the impreflion made upon the paffive object muft 

 be juft in proportion to the force of the adive object : And this too 

 is a neceflary confequence of a^ion and pajjion being relative and cor- 

 refpondlng in every particular. It is in this way that I would under- 

 ftand that maxim of the Newtonian philofophy, '* that a^ion and 

 " re-aSlion are equal ;'* though 1 think re-a^iion is a very improper 



term 



phical ArrsHgements, page iii. that everything in nature either a£\s or fuffers, or botii 

 afts and f'lffVrs J whr.t only atls, but does not I'ufFtr, is God ; what only fufl'crs, but 

 docs not dci js mattjr, or th* jirji matter^ as wt- comrnomy call it ; and the elcnuiits 

 ef other natu; -1 fubltances, arc both aclix'e and paJJlvC' 



* hee Aiiflotle, Boole 2. De /Inimay and Pulojxjnus's commentary upon thefe 

 woids, t'jwaids the aijddlc ol the boi<k, s^fl(T«»,^i» oi/C, '«« Xbv xjt»v •»t«4, 7ov Trxr^nr 

 x«: .(>■ x.iiinrfic(t, &c. where Philoponus obfervcs, that vm* is d. -rived from Tttef. bee 

 alfo Aiillotlc's metaph. lib. y chap. 21. where he gives us the levcral figmfications of 

 the word wos^*?. 



