Chap. III. ANTIENT M E T A i' H Y S I C S. ;isO 



Vis Inertiae of Matter, (fo called, nomine ftgnificantiffimo, as Sir Ifaac 

 has faid in his Principia), will not account for the continuation of 

 the Motion of a Body impelled, after the Impulfe has ceafed, there is 

 an end of the Firfl; Law of Motion ; and the continuance of the Mo- 

 tion of the Body impelled cannot be accounted for otherwife than 

 from that principle of adlivity which he fuppofes to be in every par- 

 ticle of Matter, and which is no other than what I call Mind. 



If, therefore, Sir Ifaac has fallen into any error in Metaphyfics in 

 his Principia, which is a work of a kind altogether different from 

 Metaphyfics, he may be allowed to corredt himfelf in a later work, 

 where his profefled purpofe is to inquire concerning the beginning 

 and continuation of Motion. 



Having thus removed the prejudices that would naturally arife in 

 the Mind of the reader, from the fuppofition of this being a difco-' 



very 



lias written upon tlie fubjed of Motion, that he did not believe that Matter could.' 

 move itfelf. Neither do I thinic it is polTible to believe that Sir Ifaac fuppofed thefc 

 Primitive Particles of Matter to be moved by any other Matter; and, therefore, if 

 this Moving Principle be not material, it mud neceffarily be immaterial, that is. 

 Mind. In (hort, I think that Sir Ifaac, in this work, in which alone he has philofo- 

 phifed concsrning the Origin of Motion, delivers, in very few words, the fum 

 of my doctrine concerning the Principles of Motion in the Univerfe, and agrees 

 with me in that part of it which appears the moft paradoxical, viz. that every Body, 

 organized or unorganized, greater fniall, is animated; (fee Vol. I. page 244.) ; for 

 tJiis muft be the cafe, if every particle, of which the Body is compofeJ, is acled 

 upon by Mind, that being the very definition of Animation ; (fee page 47. of this 

 Volume). And I muft further add, that I think he clearly gives up and retra£ts the 

 opinion he had formed, concerning the continuation of Motion when he wrote 

 his Principia : For there he lays it down, that Motion is continued by the ^/j 

 Inertiae; but here he fays exprefsly, that the particles of matter arc not moved 

 in confequence of the Vis Inertiae, but by an A£tive Principle. And, indeed, it is 

 impofTible that a Man, who believes that a Body has an A6live Principle in every 

 particle of it, can, at the fame time, believe that it will continue in Motion, not 

 by virtue of that A£live Principle, but by virtue of an Impulfe, which it may have 

 received fome thoufands of years before. 



