552 D I S S E R T A T I O N O N 



motions of the celeftial bodies as difcovered to his hand by the labours 

 of aftronomers before him, and the experience of thoufands of years, 

 and had not meddled at all with philofophy, nor inquired into the 

 caufe of the motions of thofe bodies, he would have formed a mod 

 compleat fyftem of aftronomy, with refpedt to the motions of the pla- 

 nets round their feveral centers. As to the influence which the pla- 

 nets have upon the motions of one another, and which the comets 

 have upon the motions of them all, he has endeavoured to account for 

 that, from the tendency which we obferve in the particles of matter 

 here below to move towards one another. And, as it may be prefu- 

 fumed that things below have a refemblance to things above, accord- 

 ing to the faying of antient philofophy *, I think it is very probable, 

 that there is a fimilar tendency among the celeftial bodies to one ano- 

 ther. But this tendency cannot be any effential quality of matter, 

 any more than the tendency to a center ; nor can it be accounted for 

 from any mechanical caufe ; and therefore it mud: be fuppnfed to be 

 the effeifl of that principle of activity which Sir Ifaac allows to be in 

 all matter, and which is no other than what I call Mind : For, as 

 all motion is produced, either by the adtion of body upon body, which 

 I call Mechanical Motion, or immediately by Mind, if we can give no 

 account of any motion from the former of thefe caufes, nor cannot fo 

 much as conceive the pofTibility of accounting for it in that way, we 

 are neceflarily led to afcribe it to the latter. 



There is, at prefent, in Britain, a fet of pious philofophers, who pre- 

 tend to derive all their philofophy from the Hebrew Scriptures. Among 

 them I expeded to find, that the celeftial motions, as well as the mo- 

 tions here on earth, would be afcribed to Mind, fupreme or fubordi^ 

 nate : But, upon looking into fome of their writings, I found, to my. 



great 



* iivfivuiyt timi T« Win rtts *«T#, was a faying of the antient Chaldean philofophy, 

 as Pfellus has told us. 



