Chap. YI. ANTIENT METArRYSICS. 371 



for all the motions in the univerfe, even the motions of his own 

 body ; nor, indeed, does he appear to have had any idea of motion 

 by mind. But, as he acknowledged the cxiftence of a fupreme intel- 

 ligence, governing this univerfe, he cannot be fiiJ to he an Athieft, 

 any more tlin.n Anaxagcras: but, I think, he ^yas as much a mate- 

 rialift. 



That Sir If:;ac had not, as I have faid, fo much as the idea of 

 mind moving body, is evident from the different caufes which he 

 has affigned for attradioii or gravitation, ivb'tch, he fays, proceeds 

 from the a^ion of bodies tending t'jivards one another^ or from fpi- 

 rits emitted from thofe bodies agitating one another^ or from the 

 aElion of athcrs, air, or fonie medium corporeal or incorporeal, im- 

 pelling the bodies fivimming in it towards one another *. Now, I 

 think. It is impoffible to believe, that a man who had any concep- 

 tion of mind moving body, fhould have affigned fo many ftrange 

 caufes for that motion, fome of them, I think, not intelligible. 

 But as he did not believe that his own body was moved by mind,, 

 of which we have as ftrong a proof as we can have of any thing, 1 

 mean confciotifnef, it was no wonder he did not believe that any 

 other body was fo moved. 



Further, he fays, that not only our animal motions, but our fen- 

 fatlons, are produced by material caufes, fuch as others and fubtile 

 fluids. And, I think, there was nothing, that, upon his principles, 

 fhould have hindred him from maintaining that our ideas., as well as our 

 fenfations, were produced by inaterial caufes, according to an antient 

 philofopher of the name of Strato j". And here I muft obferve, that 

 Sir Ifaac has, in one particular, carried his materialifm farther than Tha- 

 les, the founder of the Ionic fchool : For Thales admitted thut the mag-, 



3 A 2. net 



* Vol. II. of t/iis work, p. 324. 

 t Vol. III. <yf ibid. p. 322. 



