Chap. IV. ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. 377 



the whole bufmefs of Nature, according to thefe philofophers, is car- 

 ried on by Attraction and Repulfion, without Mind having any- 

 thing to do in the matter. 



I have cenfured pretty freely the principles which Sir Ifaac has 

 laid down in the beginning of his Geometrical and Aftronomical 

 Work, I mean his Prhicipia ; but, when, in his later thoughts upon 

 the fubjed, and in the only work in which he has philofophifed 

 concerning the beginning and continuation of Motion, he has re- 

 traced thefe principles, and laid down others very different, and 

 perfedly agreeable to the dodrine of genuine Theifm, I muft con- 

 fefs it raifes my indignation, when I fee the Matcrialifts of this age 

 endeavouring to fhelter themfelves under the authority of Sir Ifaac, 

 who has not only declared himfelf, in foftrong terms, againft their no- 

 tion of Attradtion, (without which, however, I muft do them the juf- 

 tice to acknowledge, that, I think, it is impoffible that the Mechanical 

 Motion of the Planets can be accounted for), but has faid firft, nega- 

 tively, that the Vis Inertiae can no more be the Caufe of the continu- 

 ance of Motion, than of the beginning of it, and then, pofitively, that 

 there is a principle of adlivity, which animates every particle of Mat- 

 ter and carries on all the Motions of the univerfe, and, particularly, 

 the Motion of Gravitation. Now, I fhould defire to know, In what 

 words more exprefs he could havefignified his concurrence with that 

 fundamental propofition of the natural philofophy of Ariftotlc, which 

 I have endeavoured to maintain ; — That there is a Principle of Life 

 and Motion in all Phyfical Bodies ? 



Before I leave this fubjed of Motion by Body, I cannot help ob- 

 ferving, that there is one very common Motion that, I do not know, 

 is accounted for by any Materialift, with the leaft degree of proba- 

 bility or even poflibility. The Motion I mean is that of the Tides, 

 or the Elevation of the Sea when the Moon is in a certain pofi- 

 VoL. II. B b b tion 



