86 ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. Ecok II. 



their circular motion, or motion revolving into itfelf, that every- 

 thing is generated and produced, and the whole frame of na- 

 ture preferved and fufrained. And, particularly, it is to one of 

 thefe motions, viz, the attra^ion of cohcjion^ that what we call body 

 n ay be faid to owe its cxir.ei\ce; for it is by this principle that body 

 is extended, and has the properties of folidity and impenetrability; and 

 without it tl'icre could be no animal or vegetable, rock or mountain, 

 or any thing elevated upon the face of the earth; for it is a power 

 which overcomes even gra'vitationi making the inferior parts of any 

 body adhere to the fuperior, when, otherways, by the power of gra- 

 vitation, they would fall down towards the centre, and be fpread into 

 a horizontal furface, like a fluid *. 



Ariftotle, in the work I have fo often quoted, has obferved, that the 



vegetable life is the foundation of both the animal or fenfuive life, 



and of the rational and intelledual ; for, fays he, if there was not that 



nourifhment and growth which belongs to the vegetable life, there 



would be nc\l\\Qr /en/at ion nor intelleSl'\y at leaft, incorporated with bo~ 



dy^ of which he muft always be underfto. :d to fpeak in this work, De 



Anima ; for it is, as I obfervt d before, a part of his natural philofophy. 



And, in this refped:, he compares the 'vegetable life to the triangle in 



plain redilineal figures: Y x every re6lilineal figure is refolvable into 



trijingles; and, if there were no triangles, there could be no redtilineal 



figure :j:. But the fame, with as great jufiice, may be (aid of this 



priiKiple of cohefion, without which, there v.'ould be neither 'vege- 



tcibk nor animal life i nor any kind of embodied wzW, nor indeed 



any body^ as I have already obferved, fince it is that principle which 



makes body. 



To 



* See, upon this fuhjcc):, Baxter in bis "Enquiry irto the Human Soul, page 64. 

 See aJfo Proclus in the pafT^'ge above qacfcd, pigc 7^. from the 2d Book ot his Com- 

 mt-nt iPy upon the Timaeus, page 90. wiu-re he aiTjrts the Jpirituality or immatt-r'uility 

 of this princ p!e of cohefioii, in tlie fo'lowtng w<>rcs, ttuv to vuhxtikb* voiviTiKty nvoi ij-t/, 

 -TTx-j 01 T<) Ttifivy xs-ojf^uTcy icrri, * Wh.itever Icccps together actsp and whatever a5Is is 

 * incorporeal -f Lib. 2. dc An'imaj cap. 2. \ Lib. i. cap. 3. 



