442 ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. BookV.. 



Thus, I think, I have not only given a true account of the Prin- 

 ciples of Sir Ifaac's Aftronomy, but have pointed out the Caufes of 

 the errors of the Newtonians with refpe£t to them, which ought to 

 give full fatisfadlion to every man who is difpofed to liflen to reafon 

 upon the fubjedl. 



But there are, I know, who will liften to no reafoning againft the 

 principles of a Philofophy, as they call it, of which the conclufions 

 are confelTed to be true. But I would afk thefe gentlemen, Ji'Jl^ Whe-- 

 ther they believe that there is fuch a thing as Mind in the Univerfe? 

 idly^ Whether they do not believe that Mind, if it does exift, is the 

 Author of all the Motions in the Univerfe ? 3^/)', Whether or not 

 the Planets, in particular, are not moved immediately and diredlly 

 by Mind? and whether there be the leaft proof or probability of 

 their being moved by Fluids or Ethers, or Impulfe of Solid Bodies? 

 4//6/)', Whether it be not in the power of the Supreme Being, either 

 by himfelf, or by inferior^Minds, to move thefe Bodies in the Orbits 

 in which they are moved, without Projedion or Gravitation, with- 

 out Centripetal or Centrifugal Forces? Or, Whether he be-necef- 

 farily confined, by the unfurmountable nature of things, to move 

 thefe Bodies in the way prefcribed by the Newtonians ? And, lojlly^ 

 Whether, fuppofmg the Planets to be moved by Mind, in the fimple 

 manner I contend for, the fame Laws of their Motion would not 

 take place ? Would not their fall from the Tangent be the fame ? 

 Would not their Velocity in the different parts of their Orbits be as 

 the perpendiculars to thefe Tangents inverfely ? Would not a Line 

 drawn from the Centre to the Body in Motion defcribe Spaces pro- 

 portional to the times ? And, Iqftly^ Would not Kepler's difcovery, 

 that the Cubes of the diftances from the Centre are as the Squares 

 of the Periodical Times, be equally true and deducible by neceffa- 

 ry confequence, from the Laws of the Motion? If all this be 

 true, and, at the fame time, it be not true that the Planets are moved 



by 



