Chap. XV. AN TIE NT METAPHYSICS. 185 



caufe^ therefore, afTigned to motion, does not account for the begin- 

 ning of it, but only for the continuance or propagation of it. For, 

 if we (hould fay, that this motion, by impuljc^ goes on in infinitum'^ 

 body ftill hnpeU'ing body ; in the firft place, this would be to give no 

 beginning to motion ; and, in the fecond place, it would be to affign 

 no caufe for it, becaufe, as I have ihown, an infinite feries of caufes is 

 no caufe at all. 



2^/k, In order that body fhould move body by impidfey it is of ne- 

 ceflity that the two bodies fhould be in contact ; for this is implied in 

 the nature of motion fo produced. To fuppofe, therefore, that body 

 attraSIs body, or operates upon it any way at a diftance, is a mere 

 hypothefis,not fupported by any phaenomena of nature, contradidory 

 to that fundamental law of nature, according to the Newtonian philo- 

 fophers, which lays it down, that there is a vis inertiae in all matter ; 

 inftead of which, attra5iion fuppofes an adive principle in matter. 

 And, further, 1 fay, it is abfolutely inconceivable, that a thing fhould 

 ad or operate in any way where it is not ; fo that it is not only a 

 mere fuppofition, but an impofTible fuppofition. 



It is commonly faid by the Newtonian philofophers, that they do 

 not pretend to account for the caufe of attradion, but they only fpeak 

 of it as an effe^. But an effed is d^Jaft \ and I deny the fad, that 

 one body attrads another. Attradion, therefore, is not, it' they pleafe^ 

 an occult cauie, though there be very many fuch in n^iture, 1 mean 

 caufes unknown to us. Nor do I think that Ariltotle, when he fpcako 

 of occidt caujes^ means to conceal his ignorance, but to profefs it. But 

 it is, what is worfe, an occuli tad ; which ought to be proved fo much 

 the more clearly, by how much the caule of it is not only unknown to 

 us, but altogether inconceivable. 



Aa It 



