Chap. V. ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. 383 



Impulfe of other Bodies ; for, otherwife, neither the Bufinefs of Na- 

 ture, nor of Art, could go on here below : But no man can figure 

 to himfelf any neceffity, nor, indeed, any probable reafon, why this 

 our Planet, or any other of the Planets, fhould have been firft mo- 

 ved in that way. For, though, if there be any proof or ftrong 

 probability of a thing exifting, we ought not to argue againft its 

 exiftence from Final Caufes, and deny its exiftcnce becaufe we can 

 give no reafon why it fhould be ; yet, if there be no fuch proof of 

 the exiftence of any thing, and if no reafon whatfoever can be af- 

 figned why it fhould exift, I think we may fairly conclude that it 

 does not exift. Now, the fadl: is fo far from being proved, that it is 

 in the higheft degree improbable, and, I may fay, ImpofTible : For 

 •who can fuppofe that ever Bodies exifted, of fuch prodigious mafs 

 and velocity as to give an Impulfe to fuch Bodies as the Planets that 

 would carry them on with fo extraordinary a velocity ; or, if they 

 could be fuppofed to have exifted, What is become of them now ? 

 In fhort, they muft have been created for no other purpofe but to fet 

 the Planets in Motion, and then annihilated after they had ferved 

 that purpofe. I do not think, therefore, that any man, who feriouf- 

 ly confiders the Matter, can believe that the t'lanets were put in Mo- 

 tion by Bodily Impulfe, if he believes, at the fame time, that there 

 is fuch a thing as Mind in the Univerfe, and that Mind is the Au- 

 thor of all Motion. 



But, 2do^ I hope I have proved, to the reader's fatisfadion, that, 

 fuppofe the Motion were begun by Bodily Impulfe, it muft be car- 

 ried on by Mind ; fo that we have recourfe to Mind at laft, if not 

 for the beginning of the Motion, at leaft for the continuance of 

 it. 



The only other way, in which Body can move the Planets, is by 

 Trufion. And in that way it is no doubt poffible that the Planetary 



Motion 



