338 ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. Book V. 



fuch language to be found in Antient Philofophy ; for a Status Mo- 

 tus., in Latin, or a xaTao-Touo-if xima-ta?, in Greek, would have beeij 

 thought, among the Antients, a moft abfurd and nonfenfical expref- 

 fion. And I am perfuaded that, as inaccurate fpeaking leads to 

 inaccurate thinking, it has been this inaccuracy of expreffion that 

 has led the Newtonians to believe that, as there was a ftate of 

 both Motion and Reft, fo that State was governed by the fame 

 Law. 



If the Newtonians had not confounded two things fo different, 

 and, indeed, fo oppofite in their natxire, as Reft and Motion, and 

 had not confidered them both as 3ijiatt, it appears to me impoflible 

 that they would have fallen into this error, of fuppofmg that 

 both ftates will continue till they are altered by fomething cx- 

 trinfic ; for they argue in this way : A Body at Reft continues in 

 that State, till it is moved to Motion by fomething extrinfic to it ; 

 and, therefore, a Body in Motion being alfo in a ftate, it continues 

 in that ftate till it is forced to change it. Now, they ought to have 

 drawn a quite difl'erent conclufion : For the nature of the two things 

 being not only different, but diredly oppofite, their qualities will be 

 alfo oppofite ; fo that, if Reft, by its nature and eftence, conti- 

 nues till it be changed into Motion by fomething extrinfic, Motion, 

 being the dired: oppofite of Reft, will not continue in the fame way, 

 but will ceafe of itfelf. It was in this way the Antients argued con- 

 cerning oppofite things, and particularly that great mafter of the 

 Reafoning Art, Ariftotle, who, in his book of Topics, has taught 

 us, that, if two things be oppofite, oppofite things will follow from 

 them. Thus, as Health and Sicknefs are oppofite, if Health be a 

 Good, Sicknefs will be an Evil; if Vice and Virtue be oppofite, and 

 if the confequence of Vice be Mifery, the confequence of Virtue 



will be Happinefs *. 



There 



* i\riftotle expreflcs this rule of reafoning in his (hort way ihus: E< t» unvrttt e»<«i«- 



