ayS A N T I E N T M E T A P H Y S I C S. Book IL 



though he has not fald To ercprefsly m his Principia^ and has thrown 

 out fome things there concerning the attra^ion and repiilfion of fmall 

 bodies, the phaenomena of electricity, fcnfation, and fpontaneous mo- 

 tion, which, as I have obferved, favour a good deal of inaterialifm^ he 

 has, uDon fecond thoucrhts, corrected that in the fecond edition of his 

 optics, in the laft query, where he fays, That the particles of matter 

 are moved by certain aclivs principles, which are the caufes of gravita- 

 tion, of magnetic and cieil ic attradions, of fermentation, and the co- 

 hefion of bodies *. In this paiTage. he plainly. diltingailhcs this ^c- 

 iive principle from the matter which it moves; and, therefore, has 

 gone a ftep further than he has done in his Frincipia, whc-'e he has 

 only faid^ that he does not affirm gravitation to be an eflential proper- 

 ty of ??iatter ; whereas, here, I think, he fays exprefsly, that it is not, 

 and that the aclive principle^ which produces gravitation, is alto- 

 gether diftind from matter ; and, if (o, I afk, what elfe it can be but 

 mi?hl P for, as there is nothing elfc in the univerfe but matter and. mindy 

 if it be not matter, it mult be Jiiind. 1 hus tar, therefc^re, 1 have the 

 pleafure to think, that I agree with Sir Ifaac : And, if he likewife be- 

 lieved, as he feems to fay, that this active principle in njatter was ne- 

 cefl'ary, not only for the beginning of motion, but for carrying it on f, 

 then his philofophy, and the philofophy of the antients, which I have 

 endeavoured to defend, are perfedtly the fame. 



And here we may obferve how much more confiftently Sir Ifaac 

 Newton has fjxiken of the nature of matter than Mr Locke, who, after 

 having defined ininJ to he poiver aftive, and bjdy poiver pajjive, has 

 faid, tliat there is no coritradidion in body thinking, and it may 

 be fo modified, as to have that quality J. But luch an aflcrtion is, as 



I 



* Second edit of the Optics, p. 376. and 377. 



t /^'^- P- 373- 



% Lccke's Eflay, lib. 4. cap. 10. fedt. 10. And Cap. 3. feci. 6.- 



