Chap. IT. ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. 9 



It condufts the motion ; for he has faid, both in his definition and 

 in his axiom above mentioned, that body has a power not only of 

 moving itfelf, but of doing it in a ftraight line, and with the fame 

 velocity ; that is, as he exprefl'es it, movendi uniforniitcr in direc- 

 tum. Now, nothing can be done in a certain way, and uniformly 

 in that way, without intelligence : So that in this refped, he gives 

 more power of motion to body, than our animal mind pofleflcs ; 

 for it can only move the body, but cannot dired its motions, which 

 muft be done by our rational or intelledlual mind. Now, this is 

 completing the fyftem of materialifm : And, indeed, I can give to 

 fuch materialifm no other name than that of athiefm ; fmce it gives 

 a power to body, by which motion is not only carried on, but in 

 the moft regular and orderly manner. At the fame time, I am far 

 from thinking that Sir IHxac was an athieft. But by attempting to 

 philofophife without the afTiftance of the Antients, he went on with- 

 out knowing what he was doing, or where he was to end. It was 

 one great leffon of antient philofophy, and which, I obferve, is 

 much inculcated by Plato, * To know from what being given what 

 follows.' Now, if Sir Ifaac had learned that lelfon, he would have 

 known, that giving fuch"a power of motion to body, as he has given, 

 led diredly to athiefm. 



And here it may be obferved, that Sir Ifaac's notion of body 

 moving itfelf agrees perfedly with the philofophy of Epicurus ; 

 and, indeed, that body moves itfelf is the foundation of Epicurus's 

 whole philofophy. For he has faid in exprefs terms, as Lucre- 

 tius has informed us, that his atoms, which are, according to his 

 philofophy, the principles of all bodies, move themfelves. 

 Prima moventur enim per fe primordia rerutn. 



Lucret. Lib. 2. v. 132. 

 And it is by the 



Concurfus, motus, pofitura, ordo, figura, 



Vol. VI, B of- 



