Chap. II. ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. ^^^ 



which is fo obvious to common fenfe and obfervatlon, and which e- 

 vcry body muft acknowledge to be effential to it ; I mean Change of 

 Place, and Succeflive and Continued Change ; for Motion is a thing 

 of conftant change and fucceffion. The firft change, from Reft tft 

 Motion, is not more a change than the change from Motion to Reft, 

 or any of the intermediate changes. It is true, indeed, that the 

 firft change from Reft to Motion, or the laft from Motion to Reft, 

 affeds the Senfes more, and therefore is more diftindtly perceived 

 than the intermediate changes : IJut thefe are not for that the lefs 

 real. Motion, therefore, is, like TimCj a thing confifting of parts, 

 which have no co-exiftence. And, in this refpeift, Motion is eflen- 

 tially different from quantity coutinuous, or magnitude, which is di- 

 vlfible likewife into parts infinite in number ; but thcfe parts are co- 

 exifteut- 



The very oppofite of Motion is Reft ; for the very definition of 

 Reft is, that there is no Change of Place : It is, therefore, by its 

 nature, a permanent and fi.Ked thing. 



This being the nature of thefe two things, it muft appear, at firft 

 fight, very extraordinary that the fame term fliould be applied to 

 both, and that we (hould hear of ^7?^/^ both of Motion and of Reft. 

 A State of Reft every body muft underftand, becaufe Reft is, by its 

 nature and eflence, a fixed and permanent thing : But the State of 

 a thing, which exifts only by fucceflion, and whofe very nature and 

 eflence confifts in Change, is, I think, impoffible to be underftood. 

 We might, with the fame propriety, fpeak of a ftate of Tittle, which 

 is a Being, as I have faid, of the fame nature with Motion : And, 

 accordingly, it is the Meafure of Motion, and, again, Motion is the 

 meafure of Titiie ; which ftiows that they are things perfedly fimi^ 

 lar in their nature, otherwife they could not be a meafure or ftandard 

 for one another. We are, therefore, not to wonder that there is no 

 Vol. II. U u fuch 



