Chap.XVm. ANT IE NT METAPHYSICS. 241 



Now, if it be admitted to thofe philofophers, that the principle mo- 

 ving unorganized body, and in a certain diredion too, and for a cer- 



H h tain 



movement of natural bodies, or for the order and regularity which he obferved in na- 

 ture, maintained, that there was in body a certain principle of a6livity, or a kind of 

 life inherent in it, and eflential to it, by which it was moved, and not at random, but 

 in a methodical and artificial manner, and for a certain end and purpofe. And, in 

 this way, he accounted for the regular motion of the celeftial bodies, the formation of 

 plants and animals, their growth, nutrition, prefervation, and propagation. But this 

 principle, he faid, had no intelligence or knowledge of the ends for which it operated, 

 iror any confcioufnefs of its own operations. See a more particular account of Strato's 

 do£lrine, given by Cudworth, in the third chapter of his firft book. Of thefe two fy- 

 ftems of Atheifm, the firft is the moft abfurd that it is pofHble to conceive. And I 

 think there is nothing could have driven men to believe it, (if any did ever really 

 believe it,) except that defperate abhorrence of mind, or incorporeal fubftance, and 

 that doating madnsfs upon matter, or the Hylomania, of which Cudworth fpeaks, 

 (P- ^35- }> for, in the frji place, it gives no account at all of the beginning of 

 motion, as Ariftotle informs us, {Metaphyfic. lib. i. cap. 4. in fine.) ^dly^ From 

 motions begun, they do not fay how, and carried on without any order or de- 

 fign, they account, not only for the formation of the celeftial bodies, and of 

 plants and animals here on earth, and for their firft movements, but for the 

 continuation of thefe movements, in the moft regular and orderly manner, and for 

 certain ends and purpofes, and for the regular progreftion of plants and animals, 

 from one ftate to another, till, at laft, they arrive at the ftate propoled by nature. 

 And, lafilyt they give no account at all, how, from matter, or any of its movements, 

 combinations, properties, or qualities, of any kind, could arife that thought and rea- 

 fon, which they were fure they poffefled thomfelvcs, though there was none other in 

 the univerfe. Yet this fyftem, abfurd as it is, is what our Britifti philofophcr has cho- 

 fen to defend. On the other hand, the Stratonic fyftem, or Hylozoic, as Cudworth 

 chufes to call it, is in fo far right, as it fuppofes a principle of activity in all matter, 

 afting regularly for a certain end. And it is only erroneous, fir/i^ in fuppofing that 

 this principle is material, and of the eflence of matter: Secondly, That there is no 

 principle of intelligence in the univeife, under the diredlion and fuperintendency of 

 which the a(ftive principle, in all matter, a£ls fo regularly and artificially, without 

 knowing for what purpofe it a£ts. And thus, though they muil have acknowledged 

 that there was, in their little bodies, a certain principle of counlel and defign, which 

 propofed for its end the good of its particular fyftem, yet they fuppofed that there was 

 no iuch pr mciple in the univerfe, but that every particle of matter was independent of 



another. 



