Chap. XIX. ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. 269 



calculations, I am mofr firmly convinced of the truth of the Pythago- 

 rean raaxim, * That ev^ery thing hi nature is according to number and 

 ' meafure ;* that not only the diflances and periods of the planets are 

 regulated by certain proportions^ but that all things in Nature, 

 which are homogeneous, and confequcntly fufceptible of ratios and 

 proportions, are regulated in the fame way. And, not only has he 

 applied the principles of geometry and mechanics to the motions of 

 the celeRial bodies, better than any man that ever exiftcd, but he has 

 made more curious experiments than ever man made, upon the moft 

 fubtile of all bodies, li^bt; and has, by a molt wonderful diiTedtion and 

 unravelling, * untivijled all the Jlnning robe of day ^'^ as it is well ex- 

 prefled by Mr Thomfon, in his poem upon the death of Sir ifaac 

 Newton, 



As a geometer, therefore, and experimental phllofopher, I admire 

 Sir Ifaac as much as any of his followers can do, at leaft, as 

 much as my fmall knowledge in thefe matters will allow me to do. 

 He has, no doubt, explained wonderfully well the mechanifm of the 

 lyftem, and lliown by what laws all the various motions in the hea- 

 vens are governed ; and 1 only differ from him as to the movino- 

 fjoiver of the machine, which I make to be mind operating fimply 

 and uniformly; whereas Sir Ifaac makes it to be either ;?2zW operating 

 in a double and very complicated way ; or, as that appears to be im- 

 pofTible, I rather believe he thought, though he has not faid fo, that 

 there wasfome necefTity in matter, that m:.de it tend towards a center 

 and which, therefore, made the combined motion neceffary. He has 

 therefore made of the heavens a machine pf an extraordinary kind, of 

 which, the power that firft fet it agoing, he acknowledges to be mind: 

 but he nakes it to go on without that power ; whereas, all the ma- 

 chines that we know, are moved only by the condant operations of 

 the power which firft fets them a-going. 



If 



