452 ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. BookV. 



If it be true that the Planets move themfelves, the Materialft may 

 boaft, that his Syftem of the Planetary Motion is the moft fimple of 

 any; and, indeed, there can be nothing more fimple than the Hy- 

 pothefis, that there is but one Subftance in the Univerfe, whether 

 that be Mind, as Dr. Berkley maintained, or Body, as the Materia- 

 lifts maintain: Nor is this opinion, concerning the Planetary Mc- 

 tion, deftitute of antient authority ; for it was the Opinion of 

 Strato the Peripatetic, and it is that f)'fl;em of Atheifm which Cud- 

 worth calls the Eylozoic'^, and which is fo far confiftent with itfelfi 

 that it fuppofes not only a Vis Injitci, or Motive Power, efTentlal to 

 Matter, but alfo Intelligence ; for the .moft abfurd and fenfelefs 

 Syftem of Atheifm is that of Epicurus, who maintained, that all that 

 order and arrangement which we difcover in the Univerfe, and 

 which is to be fcen, not only in things cocxiftent, but in the 

 regular fucceflion of Animals and Plants, and, above all, in the 

 wonderful order and regularity of the movements of the Celet 

 tial Bodies, w^as produced merely by the Impulfe, Tfufion, or 

 Preflure of Bodies, and the different configurarions and arrange- 

 ments of things thence arifing. This fyftem, of Body moving 



itfelf, is not only fimple, in refpet^ that it makes the Moving 

 Power, and the Body moved, to be the fame ; but alfo, in this re- 

 fped, that the Motion thus produced is perfedly fimple. And here 

 I obferve, that the Materialifts, who would conhedt their fyftem with 

 the Aftronomy of Sir Ifaac Newton, which, as it is commonly 

 taught, neceffarily fuppofes a combined Motion of the Planets, are 

 very much puzzled and perplexed ; for they find it abfolutely im- 

 poffible, upon their Hypothefis of the Planet moving itfelf, to fhow 

 that the Motion is compounded. And fo much for the firft Hypo- 

 thefis of the Planets moving themfelves. 



If this fijft Hypothefis is rejeded, the next to be confidered is that 

 which I have adopted, namely, that Mind is the only Moving 

 Power of the Planet, and Mind ading conftantly and indefinently.. 



And 



• See a pretty full account of this Sjftem given, Vol. I. p, 240. 



