THE NEWTONIAN PHILOSOPHY. 505 



dillinftion betwixt Body and Mind ; for what elfe is Mind but that 

 which moves, and thinks, and operates, according to rule and meaibre ? 

 And he might have as well faid, that we ourfelves were nnhing elfe 

 but matter, with the power of thinking fuperadded to it, which is fo far 

 true, that, in us, a thinking fubftance is joined with a material fub- 

 flance in a moft wonderful, and to us incomprehenfible, manner. 

 But, 1 hope, none of my readers imagine that the fubftances are not 

 diftind, or that thought is not a quality entirely contradidory and re* 

 pugnant to the nature and eflence of matter *. 



Neither will the vis imprejfa account for gravitation ; for it is im- 

 poflible to conceive that a torce but once imprefled, and not repeated, 

 ihould make a body not only continue in n-jotion, but with a torce 

 continually increafing, as the diftance from the body to which it gra- 

 vitates decreafes ; and this in a fixed determinate proportion. 



The third way of accounting for gravitation is what Sir Ifaac has 

 chofen ; but, as I have faid, it is rather givmg an account how it ope- 

 rates, than afligning a caufe for it. I do not wonder, therefore, that 

 moft of the Newtonians are now difpofed to adopt the only other al- 

 ternative remaining, and to agree with Dr Clarke t» that gravitation 

 is produced by the immediate and conftant agency of Mind ; for, if 

 this motion be not produced by a fluid, or any other material caufe, it 

 muft of neceflity proceed from Mind. And this, I think, is a very 

 great corre6l:ion and improvement of Sir ifaac's fyftem ; for, as Mind 

 cannot be under any neceflity of ading by repeated i.vpulles, but 

 muft be fuppofed to ad conftantly and uniformly, his fyftem is f eed 

 from the incumbrance of thofe polygons of an infinite number of fides, 



S 8 6 of 



• See what I have further faid upon this lubjeft, p. ^78. 



f See concerning Dr Clarke's philofophy, page 22 j. and 282. 



