Chap.IV. ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. 371 



moves through, which is the cafe of the Motion of Gravitation — 

 and, if I likewife can conceive it to move itfelf at certain times and 

 upon certain occafions, and not to move itfelf at other times and 

 upon other occafions, and alfo to move itfelf in different direclions 

 according to circumftances, which is the cafe of the Motions of 

 Magnetifm *and Eleftricity, and of the Attiadions and Repulfions 

 of the fmall particles of matter — and, laftly, if 1 can conceive that 

 Body may move itfelf towards another Body and incorporate with 

 that Body, and then, upon another Body prefenting itfelf, which it 

 likes better, forfaking the firft Body and joining itfelf to the lafl — 

 if, I fay, all this can be conceived, I afk what diftinction is left be- 

 twixt Body and Mind ? Muft: I not fay with the Cartefians, that a 

 Brute has no Mind, any more than thofe particles of matter which 

 chufe one thing in preference to another, or any more than thofe 

 other Bodies which move themfelves in fo orderly and regular a 

 manner? And where can I flop, if I admit that Body can move it- 

 felf fo conftantly and regularly, and for a certain end and purpofe ? 

 Muft I not admit, likewife, that all the Motions of the univerfe may- 

 be performed in the lame manner? And then there is an end of the- 

 dodtrine of Theifm ; and Atheifm muff fland fecurely on the only 

 bottom on which it can fland — the power of Matter to move itfelf : 

 It was upon that bottom, and no other, that the philofophy of 

 Democritus, Leufippus, Epicurus, and Strato could ftand ; for, as 

 thofe philofophers denied the exiftence of any Mind in the univerfe, 

 and gave no other account of the origin or continuation of Motion, 

 they muft have underftood that Body moves itfelf 



And thus, I hope, I have fatisfied the reader, that Body cannot 

 move itfelf, and, confcquently, that the Power of Motion is not ef- 

 fential to Body, at leaft, not here on earth ; for it is only concern- 

 ing the Motions on earth that we are at prefent inquiring. And the 

 reader will, at the fame time, clearly perceive the dangerous confe- 

 A a a 2 quences^ 



