386 A N T I E N T METAPHYSICS. Book V. 



all the Newtonians, as, in the other point, concerning the Firft Law 

 of Motion, I differ from fome of them. It gives me pleafure, how- 

 ever, to think that this point is not fo intimately connected with the 

 fyflem of Thcifm, as the other concerning the Eternity of Motion 

 by Impulfe. I will', however, fhow that there is a great connedion ; 

 and that, upon the fuppofition of the Planets being moved by Mind 

 diredly and immediately, it is hardly pofTiblc to fuppofe that their 

 Motion is compounded. 



Several of the Newtonians, with whom I have converfed, think 

 the compofition of the Motion fo conneded with the Firft Law of 

 Motion, that, if it be fet afide, the Motion, they think, muft be 

 fimplc and uncompounded. And, indeed, it aj -pears to me, that Sir 

 Ifaac has founded the compofition of the Planetary Motion upon 

 the hypothefis of the Planets being projeded in a flraight line, in 

 which, he fays, they would hav£ gone on to all eternity, if, by the' 

 power of Gravitation, their courfe had not been bent into the ellip- 

 tical curve*. Bat, if I have fucceeded in convincing the reader, that, 

 even fuppofmg the Planet to have been moved originally by Bodily 

 Impulfe, it cannot go on except by the power of Mind, there is an 

 end of that hypothefis ; and the only queftion remaining is. Whether 

 or not, upon the fuppofition of Mind moving thofe Bodies, It is ab- 

 folutely neceffary, by the nature of things, that the Motion fhould be 

 compounded ? Or whether, though not of abfolute necefTity, it be 

 not, for certain reafons, compounded ? 



And, in the Jiiji place, if it were true that Mind moves Body by 

 Impulfe, as Body moves Body, it might be argued, I think, with 

 great probability, that, as the Motion is of the fame kind, it is go- 

 verned by the fame Law ; and that therefore the Body goes on 

 in a ftraight line, as if it had been impelled by Body. But, as 

 1 think I have proved, demonftratively, that Mind moves Body in a 



manner 



* Page 319. 



