38 ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. Book I. 



nothing can be conceived more abfurd. And yet It is precifely the 

 •cai'e of a fcrles of Bodies moving one anotlier, without an original 

 mover ; and, indeed, of any ferics of caufcs and effeds, without a 

 firjl cattfe *. 



If this r.T'^nment proves, that Motion in a ftralght line cannot 

 he produced by a feries cf Bodies moving and moved, without fome 

 Firft Mover that is not Body, it proves, a fortiori^ thnt the circular 

 motion, of which kind all the great motions in the unlverfe are, 

 cannot be produced in that way ; for the circular motion produced 

 by Body cannot be produced but by a double impulfe, one in 

 a ftralght line from the center, commonly called the line of projec- 

 tion^ and the other towards the centre ; fo that here there muft be 

 two infinite feriefes of bodies impelled and impelling, without one 

 original caufe of either of the Motions. 



If Body cannot move itfelf, it cannot be conceived to adl at all, 

 and far lefs to be capable of that adtion which belongs only to fu- 

 pcrior Minds, I mean thinking. It is. therefore moft unphilofophi- 

 cal, and, indeed, abfurd and contradidory, to fuppofe that the 

 Deity might have fuperadded to the other qualities of Matter the 

 faculty of thinking; for that is to fuppofe that the Deity might make 

 Matter to be Mind — to make that which, by its nature and eflence, 

 cannot move, but only be monjed, to moue-^w fliort, it is to fup- 

 pofe that tlic Deity can alter the nature of things, make a fquare a 

 circle, negation affirniation, and the fame thing to be and not to be. 



And 



* 'this illiiPtration, by tlie cxaiiiple of a chain, is tak. n from an excellent Book, 

 emitlecl, ' The Religion of Nature dclineateil,' ft-a. 5 p 6. A book, in which, 

 witii a great deal of gocd argument, there is nore learning than in any which 

 has fallen into my hahds of a great while. And in this pafl'^ge b« very properly 

 mentions the chain in Homer, fafkned to the throtie of Jove, or xi^i {<«. 'o-,>,v^is>>,, 

 asIIomLTtxprefles it ; for good philc.". phy informs us, that every chain of caufcsan^i 

 cilicls, hov; long loevcr it m;iy be, hjngs from one great firft Cauf.- which fupport^ 

 it. 



