Chap.IX. ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. 449 



tlons, which we fee, not of Animal Bodies only, but of Bodies un- 

 organized, {hould go on of therafelvcs, and without any Mind. 



As to the difficulty of conceiving invifihle Powers, I would have 

 our Materialiils to learn at leaft fo much of tlie Antient Philofophy, 

 as to know that all Powers and Faculties, however vifible their ope- 

 rations may be, are themfelves inviilble things, falling under tlie ap- 

 prehenfion of no Senfe. This Power, therefore, which they fay 

 Body has of moving itfelf, they muft allow to be invifible, though 

 they perceive the effefts of it. And, if fo, the only queftion be- 

 twixt them and me is, Whether this invifible Power belongs to a 

 fubRance that is alfo invifible, and whofe qualities are likewifc all 

 invifible, or to a fubftance which is vifible, and whofe qualities are 

 all perceptible by Senfe, except this quality of moving itfelf, which 

 thofe Phllofophers have difcovcred in it ? If, indeed, it were true, 

 as Mr. Locke has faid, that Matter might think, it certainly could 

 not be difputed that it might alfo have the Power of moving itfelf: 

 Nor do I wonder that any man, who knows no more of the Philo- 

 fophy of Mind than what is to be learned from Mr. Locke, fhould 

 believe fo ; for, if Mr. Locke has convinced him, that Body may 

 refled, turn upon itfelf, and make itfelf its own obj<;£t, he can have 

 little doubt but that, in Motion, as well as in thinking, it may be 

 both Agent and Patient at the fame time, and in the fame rcfpe(fl:. 

 And this (hows it to be true, what I have obferved elfewhere, that 

 Mr. Locke, by fo imperfed and erroneous a fyftem of mind, has laid 

 the foundation of all the Materialifm and Athcifin that has been ad- 

 vanced fince his time. 



The Material Philofophy, as I have elfewhere obferved, has in- 

 creafed wonderfully in Europe fince we deferted the Schools of 

 Plato and Ariftotle, and begun to philofophife upon our own ftock, 

 without the afTiftance of the Antients ; And nothing has contributed 

 more to the growth of it, than the Experimental Philofophy, as it is 

 called, which has been fo much in fafliion, for above a century and a 



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