Cfiap. XVII. ANTIENT METAPHYSICS, 209 



more worthy of the Divine Majefty, that this operofe procefs fhould 

 be gone thro* by inferior agents of limited power, to whom it is pre- 

 fcribed to ad only in a certain way, than that it fliould be the immediate 

 work of Omnipotence, who could do the work all at once, and by a 

 jiat, without going fo much round about. — And, lafily^ this hypothefis 

 will account for Nature fometimes being difappointed of her end, and 

 making what we may call wiperfe5l and bungling njoork. This may 

 happen through the inaptitude or ftubbornnefs of the matter not yield- 

 ing to the force of an inferior operator;, but could never happen, if 

 the agent were omnipotent. 



This reafoning, if it be good, will apply to all the other natural 

 movements which I am now to mention. The next of the rectili- 

 neal kind, that I fhall take notice of, is the movement of fire or 

 flame, which is the oppofite of the movement of gravitation ; for it is 

 doivnivard^ or towards the centre of the earth ; whereas the move- 

 ment of fire is upijuards, or from the centre. I know there are fome 

 who think that flame afcends in the air in the fame way that any 

 lighter body riles in a heavier fluid ; but it is to me evident, that the 

 motion of flame is quite diff^erent from that of lighter bodies 

 which we fee in the air, fuch as duft and feathers: For they only float 

 in the air ; whereas flame fprings up in a fpire, with a force and im- 

 petuofity, which cannot be afcribed to the air in which it moves, but 

 to fom^ innate and inflindive principle of movement in the body it- 

 felf. And, if there could be any doubt that the afcent of fire was na- 

 tural to that element, there are other movements of bodies upwards, 

 which cannot be accounted for from any adventitious or mechanical 

 cauie ; fuch is the motion of the juices of a tree upwards from 

 the root, through the trunk, to the bran^'hes. And the vegetable af- 

 fords another inflance of this motion, ftill more obvious to the fcnfc : 

 For, take a plant in a fl')Wcr-pot, and reverfe the flower-pot (o that 

 the head of the plant fliall be down, keeping the earth Hill in theflower- 



D d pot,: 



