48 NOVUM OIIGAXUM. 



which is also a popular notion, since every violent motion 

 is also in fact natural^ that is to say, the external efficient 

 puts nature in action in a different manner to that which 

 she had previously employed. 



But if, neglecting these, any one were for instance to 

 observe, that there is in bodies a tendency of adhesion so 

 as not to suffer the unity of nature to be completely sepa 

 rated or broken, and a vacuum to be formed ; or that they 

 have a tendency to return to their natural dimensions or 

 tension, so that if compressed or extended within or beyond 

 it, they immediately strive to recover themselves, and re 

 sume their former volume and extent ; or that they have 

 a tendency to congregate into masses with similar bodies, 

 the dense, for instance, towards the circumference of the 

 earth, the thin and rare towards that of the heavens, these 

 and the like are true physical genera of motions, but the 

 others are clearly logical and scholastic, as appears plainly 

 from a comparison of the two. 



Another considerable evil is, that men in their systems 

 and contemplations bestow their labour upon the investi 

 gation and discussion of the principles of things and the 

 extreme limits of nature, although all utility and means of 

 action consist in the intermediate objects. Hence men 

 cease not to abstract nature till they arrive at potential 

 and shapeless master, and still persist in their dissection, 

 till they arrive at atoms ; and yet were all this true it would 

 be of little use to advance man s estate. 



67. The understanding must also be cautioned against 

 the intemperance of systems, so far as regards its giving 

 or withholding its assent ; for such intemperance appears 

 to fix and perpetuate idols, so as to leave no means of 

 removing them. 



These excesses are of two kinds. The first is seen in 

 those who decide hastily, and render the sciences positive 

 and dictatorial. The other in those who have introduced 

 scepticism, and vague unbounded inquiry. The former 

 subdues, the latter enervates the understanding. The 

 Aristotelian philosophy, after destroying other systems (as 

 the Ottomans do their brethren) by its disputations, con 

 futations, decided upon every thing, and Aristotle himself 

 then raises up questions at will, in order to settle them ; 

 so that every thing should be certain and decided, a method 

 now in use among his successors. 



The school of Plato introduced scepticism, first, as it 

 were, in joke and irony from their dislike to Protagoras, 



