20 ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. Book I. 



motions of the Celeftial Bodies, which are alfo produced by mind. 

 But, be^aufe two bodies are moved in perfedl conformity with one 

 another, we are thence to infer, not that the one is the caufe of the 

 motion of the other, but that there is fome fuperior caufe which di- 

 rects the motions of both. 



There is one kind of attraction which is perceived In fmall che- 

 mical bodies, by which one body attradts another and incorporates 

 with it, but, if a third body be prefented to it, which it Ukes better, 

 it rellnquiflies the firft body with which it had joined itfelf, and in- 

 corporates with that third body; from whence this attraction is very 

 properly called e'c£live attra£lion. This it is impoffibie to account 

 for otherwife than from the operation of mind. — I will only add 

 upon this fubjeft of attraBion^ that Sir Ifaac, by fuppofmg that 

 mind is not one of the caufes of the motion of body, appears to give 

 up that fundamental principle of his aftronomy, attradlion. 



I will conclude this chapter with fome obfervations upon this an- 

 tlent dodrine, of mind being mediately or immediately the caufe of 

 motion. It is perfectly agreeable to the dodrine of our Scripture, 

 by which we are taught that God is in all things ^ and that in lAtn 

 we oiirjclves Uve^ move^ and have our being ; fo that he moves all 

 bodies, and is, therefore, the author of all the motions in the heavens 

 and in the earth, by which the whole bufmefs of nature is carried 

 on. Matter, therefore, according to the dodtrine of antient philofo- 

 phy, is merely paffive, and is no more than the fubjedt upon which 

 mind, the only active principle in the univerfe, a£ts. And this 

 principle the antients carried fo far as to maintain, that mind not 

 only made bodies attrad one another and join together, but, when 

 they were joined, made them cohere ; for cohefion, they faid, was 

 from a principle of adion, which does not belong to body but to 



mind 



