-56 ANTIENT -METAPHYSICS. Book II. 



notion, I imagine, is derived from Sir Ifaac Newton's Firfl Law of 

 Motion, which afferts, that Bodies once fet in Motion continue al- 

 ways in Motion, by what he calls the 'vis inftta. But, in ihtfrjl place, 

 I think I have fliown clearly, and fhall further fliow in the fequel, 

 that this Law of Motion, though laid down as an axiom, is not 

 true ; and that no Body can either begin or continue Motion by 

 any power eflential to Matter, but only by a power altogether dif- 

 ferent, namely Mind. But, 2dly, if it were true, it could not apply 

 to this cafe, being only applicable to Motion begun by bodily im- 

 pulfe which, as I have fliown, cannot account for all the Motions 

 of the univerfe, And, lajlly, though it might be conceived, that 

 one original impreflion upon the Body, whether given by Mind 

 or Body, might continue to make it move without ceafing, it is 

 impoflible to conceive that the fame imprefTion only once given, 

 fhould make it move for fome time, and, after it has ccafed to 

 move, move again, as in the cafe of the magnet and the iron, — 

 of what they call the elective attradion, which the chymifts exhibit 

 in their folutions of metals, — and of the common phacnomcnon of 

 a ftone falling to the ground as often as it is taken up from it. 



All thefc falfe opinions, therefore, being rejedled, there remains 

 only the true opinion, that each Body is moved by a Mind belong- 

 in"- to itfelf. And this opinion I hold to be perfedlly agreeable to 

 the general analogy of Nature, and to our original idea of the mo- 

 ving power in Bodies ; for the moving power of any Body is not a 

 fenfation, but an idea. The Motion of the Body is a fadl that falls 

 under the fenfes : But it is by intelligence that we apprehend 

 the caufe of that movement : And, in general, it is only by 

 intelligence that we have any notion of caufe or eflfed. Now, how 

 do we get the idea of Mind moving Body ? And I fay it is by Con- 

 fcioufnefs ; for it is by rcfiedting on -what pafTes in our own little 

 world, that we know that our Bodies are moved internally, not by 



any 



