BOOK II. J MOTION OF CONFIGURATION 549 



sonorous body ; thus, if a bell be stopped and held tightly, so as 

 to be immovable, the sound fails, and there is no further rever 

 beration, and if a musical string be touched after the first vibra 

 tion, either with the finder (as in the harp), or a quill (as in the 

 harpsichord), the sound immediately ceases. If the magnet be 

 removed the iron falls. The moon, however, cannot be removed 

 from the sea, nor the earth from a heavy falling body, and we 

 can, therefore, make no experiment upon them ; but the case i 

 the same. 



Let the fourteenth motion be that configuration or position, 

 by which bodies appear to desire a peculiar situation, collocation, 

 ind configuration with others, rather than union or separation. 

 This is a very abstruse notion, and has not been well investi 

 gated ; and, in some instances, appears to occur almost without 

 any cause, although we be mistaken in supposing this to be 

 really the case. For if it be asked, why the heavens revolve 

 from east to west, rather than from west to east, or why they 

 turn on poles situate near the Bears, rather than round Orion or 

 any other part of the heaven, such a question appears to be 

 unreasonable, since these phenomena should be received as 

 determinate and the objects of our experience. There are, in 

 deed, some ultimate and self-existing phenomena in nature, but 

 those which we have just mentioned are not to be referred to 

 that class : for we attribute them to a certain harmony and con 

 sent of the universe, which has not yet been properly observed. 

 But if the motion of the earth from west to east be allowed, the 

 same question may be put, for it must also revolve round certain 

 poles, and why should they be placed where they are, rather than 

 elsewhere P The polarity and variation of the needle come under 

 our present head. There is also observed in both natural and 

 artificial bodies, especially solids rather than fluids, a particular 

 collocation and position 01 parts, resembling hairs or fibres, which 

 should be diligently investigated, since, without a discovery of 

 them, bodies cannot be conveniently controlled or wrought upon. 

 The eddies observable in liquids by which, when compressed, 

 they successively raise different parts of their mass before they 

 can escape, so as to equalize the pressure, is more correctly 

 assigned to the motion of liberty. 



Let the fifteenth motion be that of transmission or of passage, 

 by which the powers of bodies are more or less impeded or 

 advanced by the medium, according to the nature of the bodies and 

 their effective powers, and also according to that of the medium. 

 For one medium is adapted to light, another to sound, another 

 to heat and cold, another to magnetic action, and so on with 

 regard to the other actions. 



Let the sixteenth be that which we term the royal or political 

 motion, by which the predominant and governing parts of any 



