592 



ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. Book V. 



the planet in a progrefTive Motion, in a ftraight line, and the other 

 bends it towards its centre. 



If the Planets be really moved in this way, it is the only Motion 

 of the kind that is known in Nature ; for the other compounded 

 Motions I have mentioned are all combined of Body only, or of 

 Body and Mind ; but not one to be found that is compounded of 

 Mind only, though we have daily before our eyes examples of Mo- 

 tions by Mind : For fuch are our own Motions, and the Motions of 

 other Animals ; and fuch are the Motions even of unorganized Bo- 

 dies, Magnetic, and Eledric Attradions and Repulfions, and thofe 

 of the fmall particles of Matter, which the chymifts exhibit. In all 

 thefe Motions by Mind, it is not pretended that there is any compo- 

 fition. It is true, indeed, that thefc Motions are in ftraight lines ; 

 but, as Mind a£ts by inceffant energies, it can, as I have fhown, 

 vary the diredtion in every inftant of the Motion : So that it is per- 

 fectly indifferent to Mind, whether it moves Body in a ftraight line or 

 in a curve ; whereas Body can only move Body in a ftraight line. Ac- 

 cordingly, we fee that Mind moves the Body of an Animal in a curve, 

 with as much facility, and with as little compofition in the Motion, 

 as in a ftraight line, except that, as I have obferved, the Body being 

 divided into members, there muft neceflarily be likewife fome divi- 

 fion of the Motion : Whereas,' the Planets having neither joint nor 

 limb, and confequently all being moved together, their Motion in a 

 curve muft be perfe(Slly uniform. 



That analogy, therefore, betwixt the Motions on Earth and thofe 

 in Heaven, by which only we can form any true judgment of the 

 latter, fails here entirely ; and we muft try whether, upon any other 

 ground, this ftrange complicated Motion of the Planets can be fup- 

 ported. If, indeed, it were true, what the Jefuits have advanced, 

 that, by the nature of Motion, it can only be in a ftraight line, w.e 

 fould pronounce, with the greateft certainty, that the Planetary 



Motion 



