^70 ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. Book V. 



That Body does not move itfelf^ I hope I have fufficlently proved 

 by what I have faid, both in this Volume *, and the preceding f ; 

 nor fliould I ha\^ here added any thing more on the fubje£t, but 

 tliat thofe Newtonians, who ftill maintain that Bodies continue in 

 Motion by a Vis Infita^ that is, a force inherent in them and efTen- 

 tial to tliert, muft, I think, likewife maintain, that Body can move 

 itfelf ; it being impoffible to diftinguifii betwixt the beginning and 

 continuance of Motion. For, as all Motion confifts of many Mo- 

 tions, every change of Place is a new Motion, which muft have a 

 beginning, as well as the firft Motion : And, accordingly, in Na- 

 ture, we fee there is no fuch diftindtion. In Animals, the fame 

 power that continues the Motion begins it ; and, likewife, in unor- 

 ganized Bodies, the fame principle of gravitation, that carries on the 

 Motion of a Body towards the centre, begins it : And, in the Iron, 

 the fame principle, that continues its Motion towards the loadflone, 

 begins it : And the fame is true of all the ele<Strical and chymical 

 Motions. I do not, therefore, at all wonder, that Mr Cotes, who 

 no doubt believed in the Vis Infita, did alfo believe that Gravitation 

 was eflcntial to Body f : And, as I have faid, I rather wonder that 

 Sir Ifaac has faid he did not affirm it to be eflential. 



It appears to me that thofe, who make any kind of Motion or 

 the continuation of Motion to refult from the nature and eflence of 

 Body, confound altogether Body and Mind, and thereby deftroy 

 that diftindlion, which, I think, is the foundation, not only of na- 

 tural philofophy, but of metaphyfics and theology : For, if I can 

 conceive Body, by its own inherent and innate Power, to move it- 

 felf fometimes flower and fometimes quicker, and that in a fixed 

 and determinate ratio to the time of its Motion and the fpace it 



moves 



• Book I. cliap 6. 



t Vol. I. Book II. Chap. 3. 



% See his Preface to his Edition of the Piinci/'i<i, 



