360 



A N T I E N T METAPHYSICS. 



Book V. 



very of mine, I think that, upon the credit of fuch reafons and 

 fuch authorities, as I have given, I may venture to deny, with fome 

 affiirance, that a Body impelled by another Body will go on for- 

 ever, by virtue of that impulfe, though there fhould be no obftacle 

 in its way to flop or retard its progrefs. The fadt, however, is cer- 

 tain, that it will go on for fome time. And, as it goes on in none 

 of the three ways above mentioned, neither of itfelf, nor by the ac- 

 tion of any other Body upon it, nor by the impulfe which has ceafed, 

 it follows of neceflary confequence, that it muft go on in the fourth 

 way I mentioned, that is, by Mind, the only Moving Power in this 

 univerfe, either mediately or immediately. 



And thus, I think, 1 have accounted for a phaenomenon, which 

 even Ariftotle has vainly endeavoured to account for by Mechanical 

 Caufes, when he might have eafily done it upon that hypothefis, 

 which I have aflumed from him, that there is a principle of Move- 

 ment, a kind of Life ^ as he calls it, in all phyfical Bodies. And, 

 likewife. Sir Ifaac Newton has endeavoured to account for it in an 

 improper manner, when he has afcribed it to a Vis Infitay or power 

 inherent in the Body, 



However wonderful it may appear to a man unacquainted with 

 the antient philofophy, that a Projedile fhould be immediately and' 

 direftly moved by Mind, it will not be at all furprifmg, to a man 

 ■who has learned from Ariftotle, that Nature * is a principle of life 



• Although I have faid a great deal oi Nature in this and the preceding Volume, 

 yet, as it is a word fo little underfbood, and which, I will venture to fay, no man 

 underitands, who has not fludied the antient philofophy, I will put the reader in 

 miml, that, by Nature, Ariftotle means a Principle of Movement, but without In- 

 telligence, 



