458 ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. BookV. 



every cafe, we cannot attain to this knowledge, there is another 

 thing concerning the Syftem, which, if we can difcover, it is mak- 

 ing confiderable progrefs in the knowledge .of it: And that is, the 

 Relation of the fcvcral parts of the Syftem to one another, even of 

 thofe that fcem the mofl remote, and to have the leaft connection 

 together. Now, Sir Ifaac has made a difcovery of this kind, the 

 greateft, I believe, that ever was made by any philofopher : So that, 

 though his work be not of the philofophical kind, he has furnifhed 

 ample materials for the contemplation of the philofopher. The 

 difcovery I mean is that of the fimilarity betwixt the Motions of the 

 Celeftial Bodies and Projeftiles here on Earth, by which he has con- 

 nected the Motion of the remotell Bodies with the neareft, the 

 greateft with the leaft, and difcovered that relation of things beloia 

 to things above, and of Heaven to Earth, which the Antients ap- 

 pear to have had fome Idea of*, but never could make out in the 

 way that Sir Ifaac has done. 



What I have faid of the greater facility in comprehending the 

 philofophy of Mind, when applied to Nature, than in underftand- 

 ing the Material and Mechanical Syftem of Nature, will, I think, 

 apply very well to Aftronomy ; for, unlefs we are to maintain that 

 Body moves itfelf, and, confequently, that there is no dlftindticu 

 betwixt Body and Mind, — betwixt that which moveSy and that which 



is 



* 2v/ii7D-a9)i livai ra nocru toi? xmu. — This I have applied to the conformity obfcrved 

 betwixt the Motions of the Sea and of the Moon ; fee p. 378. and p. 401. And I 

 am perfuaded that, if the Antients had known that conformity as well as Sir Ifaac 

 did, they would have afcribed it to that Sympathy which the Great Creator has 

 eftablifhed betwixt the feveral Motions in the Univerfe, but would rot have made 

 the one the Caufe of the other, any more than Sir Ifaac makes the Defcent of the 

 Moon from the Tangent the Caufe of the Defcent of Bodies here on Earth. In that 

 inftance, there can be no more than fympathy betwixt the two Motions ; anj 

 the fame fympathy, I hold, is betwixt the Motion of the Tides, and the Moon's 

 Motion. 



