THE NEWTONIAN PHILOSOPHY. 513 



jedile impulfe ; fo that the planet, being once fet a-fplnning, like a 

 top, continues to do fo, without any further agency of Mind ; whereas 

 I fay, that all the three motions are produced by the immediate and 

 never ceafing agency of Mind, and that its motion in its orbit is as 

 fimple and uncompounded as the line in which it is performed, or as a 

 motion in a ftraight line, with which, therefore, Ariftotle fitly com- 

 pares it *. 



And, imOi I think It muft be admitted, that, as the manner of 

 Mind moving body is fo different from that of body moving body, 

 it is at leaft probable that the motion is begun and carried on in a 

 different manner. 



2do-i If Mind be in this cafe the moving power, as Sir Ifaac ad- 

 mits, if not immediately, at leafl mediately, and Mind Intelligent, or 

 at leaft direded by Intelligence, it is impoffible to fuppofe but that 

 fuch a Mind would perform the motion in the moft natural and dire(5l 

 manner, without taking the circuit which Sir Ifaac fuppofes, of firft 

 projeding the body in a ftraight line, and then bending that line inta 

 a curve. If, indeed, the dodrine of the materiallfts were true, that 

 matter had, in itfelf, the power of moving itfelf, and that, therefore, 

 gravitation was an efTeniial property of matter, the projedile motion 

 was abfoluiely neceffary, in order to countera6t the material neceffity 

 by which the body was moved towards the center. But, fmce gravi- 

 taiion is no eflential quality of matter, there is no neceffity for the im- 

 pulfe in the ftraight Ime, nor, by confequence, for gravitation, but 

 both are entirely fuperfluous, unlefs it could be demonftrated, that 

 it was impoffible for body to be moved in a circle or ellipfis, even 

 by Mind, without the motion being in a ftraight line. But this, 



Tt t 2 I 



♦ Ariftotle, De Cceh, cap. 2. where he fays, that the only two fimple motion} 

 are, the motion in a ftraight line, and tUut in a circle. 



