i94 APPEND! IC, Chap. I. 



Having thus fliown in what way the Flajfjrxary Motion rauft ne- 

 cefTarily have begun, I will now proceed to conlider the confequen- 

 ces of fuch a power afcribed to Matter, by which a Body is carried 

 on in a ftraight line, and with an equable Motion too, though it 

 never was proje^^ed. In the jirji place, as in the cafe I iuppofe, 

 the Body does not continue a Motion that it had once got, but be- 

 gins a new Motion altogether different : This, in my apprehenfion, 

 is fufficient of itfelf to deftroy the diilindion which the Newto- 

 nians are fo fond of, betwixt the power of beginning and of conti- 

 nuing Motion, a diftindlion which has no foundation in nature ; 

 for, in all the Magnetical, Eledrical and Chymical Motions, and that 

 common Motion of Gravitation, the fame Power, which continues 

 the Motion, begins it ; and, therefore, if there be a vis inftta in the 

 Planet which continues the Motion, why fhould not the fame 

 'VIS infita begin it '■• ? This innate power, therefore, in the Body, 

 of moving itfelf in a ftraight line, though it had never been fo 

 moved before, we muft fuppofe, can begin Motion, as well as 

 continue it, like the other Motions above mentioned. And, 

 when we confider how varioufly this power exerts itfelf, in lines 

 of fo many different diredions, it will be difficult, and, indeed, I 

 think, impoffible, to convince a materialift that it may not have 

 the power of moving itfelf in all diredions, and of beginning Mo- 

 tion, as w^ell as of continuing it. 



I know, it wull be faid, that the planet moves itfelf in thefe dif- 

 ferent diredions only occafionally, and in confequence of the im- 

 pulfe lirfl: given it : But to this I anfwer, that the animal is moved 

 in confequence of the impreffions made upon his organs of fenfe by 

 external objeds : But, will it be faid that his Body is moved by a 



* See Vol. ii. p. 370, 



