^52 ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. Book V. 



doubt, well underftand what they fay ; for it is inconceivable how 

 one Motion fhould generate another, otherwife than by the Body in 

 Motion Impelling a Body at reft. But, how a Body, becaufe it has 

 been moved fo far, fhould therefore be moved fo much farther, no 

 man can conceive. 



It is commonly faid, that, when one Body impells another, the 

 Motion is communicated to the Body that is impelled, fo that the 

 impulfe is the Caufe of all the Motion that follows. But that is only a 

 wayof fpeaking, to denote, that what motive Force is imparted to the 

 Body impelled, is loft to the Body impelling, and, in reality, exprefles 

 no more, than that the Body impelled goes on with a certain part of 

 the force of the Body impelling, according to an eftablilhed Law of 

 Nature, which is perfedlly confiftent with my theory of Mind mo- 

 ving the Body impelled ; for it would be contrary to the order and 

 regularity which we obferve in Nature, if that Mind did not move it 

 according to fome rule or meafure. And what rule more natural 

 than the force, with which the Body impelling is moved. But, to 

 fuppofe that one Body, by touching another, (for an impulfe is no- 

 thing but a more violent contadl:), fliould communicate to the other 

 Body a power of moving itfelf to all eternity, is a moft abfurd fup- 

 pofition. 



The other thing that I would have the Newtonians confider, is a 

 very obvious diftindion, which, if rightly made, would, I fhould think, 

 remove all their difficulties. The diftinftion I mean is, the common 

 diftindtion betwixt firft and fecond caufes, that is, the remoter and 

 the nearer or more immediate caufe ; for every thing that is produ- 

 ced muft have an immediate Caufe operating in its production. This 

 I have illuftrated in the Appendix to the Firft Volume *, by the ex- 

 ample of the feeds of plants and animals, which are the remoter 

 caufes of their movements, though not the immediate. But we need 



not 



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