HE NEWTONIAN PHILOSOPHY. 517 



way of Impulfe, there is an end, both of the proje<flile force and of gra- 

 vitation ; both ^A^hich would have been abfolutely neceffary, if the cir- 

 cular motion of the planets had been produced by bodily impulfe j for 

 it is, as I have faid, impoflible to conceive that body can move body o- 

 therwife than in a ftraight line ; but it is equally impoITible to conceive 

 that Mind can move body by impulfe ; and, therefore, if Mind be the 

 power that moves the planets, both projedion and gravitation are not 

 only unneceflary, but altogether inadmiffible, as repugnant to the idea 

 of Mind moving body, and ferving no other purpofe but to pro- 

 duce a motion, which not only may be produced without them, but 

 cannot be produced by themi where Mind is the agent. 



I omit here what I have urged in the body of this work, that Sir 

 Ifaac's philofophy is not comprehenfive enough to take in all the fy- 

 ftems of Theifm, and that it excludes all the philofophers of anti- 

 quity who believed in God, but, at the fame time, believed that the 

 world was eternal ; for, upon that fuppofition, there could have been 

 no impulfe, or projectile force, which muft neceil'arily have been gi- 

 ven at fome particular time. 



The facSl of the projedion of the planets, and the fuppofition of the 

 power of gravitation extending over the univerfe, at leaft over all our 

 folar fyftem, and of the motive powers of the planets being fo ftrangely 

 mixed, that one third part of their motions is produced by Mind, the 

 other two by mechanifm, are fuch mere hypothefes, and fo unfit to 

 be the principles of any fcience, that I find fome of the Newtonians, 

 with whom I have converfed, difpofed to give them up. But, fay rhey, 

 the circular or elliptical motion, however produced, whether by Mind 

 or bodily impulfe, is, of its nature, not fimple, but combined of a cen- 

 tripetal and a centrifugal force, which will anfwer all the purpofes of 

 Sir Ifaac Newton's aftronomy, and explain all the phaenomena of the 

 heavens in the manner he has done. 



This 



