322 APPENDIX. Cliap. I. 



Sir Haac Newton's difcovery of the laws of the Planetary Motion 

 was that of a fingle man in the fpace of a {hort life. 



Bur, whatever regard I may have for the honour of Sir Ifaac New- 

 ton, my chief concern is for the fyftem of tlieifm and natural reli- 

 gion, which I hold to be abfolutely irreconcileable with the prin- 

 ciples of this aftronomy, as they have hitherto been laid down ; for, 

 if it be true that Body can move itfelf in any diredion, and with 

 an uniform velocity, (whether in a flraight line or in a curve, is, 1 

 think, of little confequence), it will be impoffible ever to convince 

 an atheift that Body may not, of itfelf, do the whole bufmefs of na- 

 ture, which we know is all carried on by Motion. The diftindion 

 between the beginning and continuation of Motion, has, as I have 

 fhown *, no foundation in Nature and the leafon of things ; nor is 

 fupported by any fad or experiment, as is evident from what we 

 obferve of magnetical, eledrical, and chymical Motions ; nor can 

 it ever fatisfy thofe philofophers who maintain, as all the antient 

 philofophers did, atheifts as well as theifts, that the Material world 

 was from all eternity : And, as nothing can be done according to 

 rule and meafure, except by Intelligence, if the Motion be uni- 

 form. Intelligence, as well as a principle of Motion, muft be of 

 the eflence of Body ; and, indeed, as all the Motions of the uni- 

 verfe are according to fome rule or meafure, it feems impoffible to 

 feparate thefe two. If, therefore, they are not difpofed (as I hope 

 they are not) to adopt the philofophy of Strato, who gave to Body 

 both intelligence and a principle of Motion, (two things that never 

 can be feparated, where the Motion is according to rule or mea- 

 fure tj) which, as I have obferved X, w^ould fimplify their fyftem 



very 



* See page 294. 

 t See page 295. 

 4^ Vol. ii. p. 452. 



