398 ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. Book V. 



fay that the fame Projedile cannot be fuppofed to be animated by 

 two Minds moving it different ways, a Centrifugal and a Centripetal 

 Mind ; for, befides the ftrangenefs and oddity of the fuppofition, that 

 would be to fuppofe what would be altogether fuperfiuous and un- 

 neceflary, of which there is nothing in Nature. Now, if there be 

 but one Mind or Moving Power, it is impoffible, by the nature of 

 things, that one Power can at the fame time move the Body in dif- 

 ferent, and, indeed, oppofite diredions, that is, from the centre, and 

 to the centre. 



It may be objeded, that, if the Motion of the Projedtile be flop- 

 ped by a perpendicular Plain oppofed to it, it will fall down ; or, if 

 by a Horizontal Plain, it will go on for fome time upon that Plain : 

 Which fhows that the Motion is adlually compounded, fince it can 

 be fo analyfed. 



But my anfwer is, that the Mind, or moving Principle, in the Bo- 

 dy, is not confined to one way of moving, but can perform feveral 

 Motions occafionally. Nor is this fingular ; for, in other Bodies, 

 the fame Mind both attrads and repels, that is, moves the Body /<?-. 

 •wards another Body, or from it ; and fometimes it faftens upon one 

 Body, and at other times lets it go, and incorporates with another 

 in preference to the former, as in the cafe of what is called Elec- 

 tive Attradion. In the fame manner, the Mind in the Projeftile 

 moves the Body downward towards the Centre : And this is its 

 common Motion, and the moft conftant and regular Motion in Na- 

 ture, and for a reafon very obvious, becaufe, without fueh a Motion, 

 the bufinefs of Nature on this Earth could not go on. But, occafionally, 

 it performs, like other Bodies, a different Motion ; and, particularly, 

 upon occafion of a ftroke or pulfation from another Body, it goes on 

 in a progreffive Motion, for a certain time, which we know to be 

 likewife neceflary for carrying on the bufinefs, both of Nature and 

 Arl here below. This Progreflivc Motion defcribes a curve line, 



which 



