THE NEWTONIAN PHILOSOPHY. 507 



mechanical. Sir Ifaac's fyftem, therefore, halts clumfily enough be- 

 twixt Mind and Mechanifm ; fo that the antient fyftem which I de- 

 fend has, at leaft, the merit of being more fimple and uniform, 

 which afcribes the motion wholly to Mind ading indefinently upon 

 the planet. 



I know very well that, in the age in which we live, the authority 

 of the antients goes for very little. We can now only defire ueniam 

 nntiqiiis^ non laudes et praemia ; and the fafhionable language among 

 our philofophers at prefent is, that the antients did very well, confi- 

 dering the times in which they lived ; but, had it been their happinefs 

 to have fallen into an age fo learned as ours, they would have done 

 much better. But there is a modern authority, which fhould difpofe 

 the candid reader to liften, without any violent prejudice to the argu- 

 ment, by which I will endeavour to prove, that the planets are not 

 moved mechanically in any part of their motion, but altogether by 

 the immediate and conftant agency of Mind. The authority I mean 

 is that of Dr Samuel Clarke, which I have already made ufc of, but 

 muft again have recourfe to it. And the reader will have the greater 

 regard to it, that he was not only one of the beft fcholars, and greateft 

 metaphyficians, in modern times, but was alfo very learned in Sir 

 Ifaac*s philofophy, and intimately conneded with him, having tran- 

 flated into Latin fome of his works ; fo that he cannot be fufpedcd of 

 any prejudice againft him or his philofophy. Now, the Dodor's o- 

 pinion is clear and exprefs, that all the great motions in the univerfe 

 are caufed by fome immaterial power continually exerting itfelf, and 

 not ading by any motion originally imprelTed upon the bodies ; (o 

 that, though he acknowledges the truth of Sir Ifaac's firft law of mo- 

 tion, that body, once put in motion, continues in that ftate till it be 

 (topped by fome external caufe ; yet he rejeds the notion of the ce- 

 leftial bodies continuing to move in confequence of any impulfe once 



S f f 2 given 



