Chap. III. . A N T I E N T M E T A P H Y S I C S. ^,55 



not for the reputation of Sir Ifaac Newton or any particular man, 

 but for the caufe of Religion and tlie genuine dodrincs of Theifm, 

 I expedt his thanks and praife, for having fo carefully examined tlie 

 truth of a propofition, that' certainly gives too much countenance 

 to Materialifm, to which, it muft be confefTed, that the philofophy 

 of this age has too great a tendency.?; r.d o-'I li -i 



I fliould not, however, have delivered my opinion fo freely upon 

 the fubjeiSl:, if 1 could only have oppofed, to fo great an authority as- 

 ihatof Sir Ifaac Newton, my poor opinion. But I have on my fide the 

 authority of all antiquity ; arid, however mean opinions fome men 

 may have of the authority of the Antlents in philofophy, it would be 

 very extraordinary if they were ignorant of an Axiom, and an 

 Axiom too of lb great importance, concerning the continuation of 

 Motion in the Univerfe. But, in England, where, to the honour of 

 the country be it faid, the Greek learning is better preferved than- 

 any where in Europe, the learned begin to have a better opinion of" 

 the, Greek philofophy ; and I do not defpair of living to fee the au- 

 thority of AiiHotle, in matters of philoft)phy, as great in one at leaft 

 of the Univerfities of England, as it was once all over Europe, and' 

 as it ftiLl is, according to my informatioq, in the Schools of the 

 Greek Church. He has laid it down as the bafis of his whole Syftem 

 of Phyfics, that there is a principle of Motion in all phyfical Bo- 

 dies, which, as he every where diftinguifhes it from the Matter of 

 thofe Bodies, can benothing elfe than Mind, not Intellectual or Sen- 

 fitive or even Vegetable Mind, but, as I have fhoivn,, a Mind of a 

 different kind, which, as it informs all Unorganized or Elemental 

 Bodies, I therefore call the Elemental Mind. By this principle, he 

 underftands that all Bodies are moved^ if their Motions cannot be 

 accounted for by the agency of other Bodies. In this latter way, he 

 has endeavoured to account for the continuation of Motion in Bo- 

 dies impelled *. But, as It is evident that he has failed in that at- 



Y y 2 terapt^ 



• Sec page 336. 



