52 ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. Book 11. 



or, if compounded, not of fuch artificial frame and texture as Bodies 

 organized ; fo the motions it produces here on earth are of the 

 fimpleft kind, being all in ftraight lines : But, like other Minds, it 

 moves by inceflant energies, and thefe not conftant or uniform, but 

 increafmg or decreafmg, according to the dillance of tiie ohjetis to 

 which, or from which the Bodies in motion are moved. In the moft 

 remarkable motion of this kind, I mean the motion of Bodies falling 

 towards the centre of the earth, the ratio of increafe or decreafe, at 

 the different diftances, has been exadly fixed. But, in the motion 

 of other Bodies, fuch as elcdrical, magnetical, and chymical, the va- 

 rious force of the moving power has not been fo exadly calculated, 

 though we are fure it is governed by fixed and ftated laws, as well 

 as every other thing in Nature. 



This motion of gravitation is Ukewife more conftant than any 

 other motion of Bodies upon earth ; for in all heavy Bodies here 

 there is a tendency towards the centre ; whereas the motions of 

 magnetifm and eledricity are only occafional, when the Bodies are 

 within a certain diftance of one another. And there is another oc- 

 cafional motion, which our modern philofophers account for, not 

 from any reafon or principle, but by a mere word or found, I mean 

 the word AttraB'wn ; and that is the motion of the waters of the fea 

 upward, when the moon is in a certain pofition with refped to them. 



And here we may obferve in paffing, that, though Mind have the 

 power of moving, and be the only adive principle in the univerfe ; 

 yet it is not neceflary that it fhould be always moving, but it may 

 be fometimes quiefcent, and then it moves only potentially, or in 

 capacity : And the fame may be true of Matter, with refped to its 

 quality of heing moved. And, accordingly, Ariftotle maintained, 

 that the different kinds of Bodies had deftinations to different places, 

 to which, when they were arrived, they refted. Thus, according 



to 



