SUPER- MATERIAL CAUSE. 49 



if we suppose that spirit is an essence, and that matter, as such, 

 was created out of this essence, there will at least in this 

 be no violation of the laws of thought; and the reasons on 

 which such suppositions may be grounded will incidentally and 

 more distinctly appear as we proceed. 



There is a philosophy extant which insists that matter has 

 of itself an inherent 'power of motion, and that matter (or phys- 

 ical substance) is eternal. But that this assumption is unten- 

 able, is obvious from the following considerations : Motion in 

 matter, as shown before, necessarily tends to bring matter 

 into forms ; and if motion was from eternity in eternal matter, 

 then matter must from eternity have been brought into forms 

 nay, into the ultimate and highest forms which that motion 

 is qualified to engender. But as it is sensibly certain that 

 these highest forms did not exist for.ever, and rationally cer- 

 tain that they must have ultimately sprung from a state of 

 primeval chaos, it follows, of necessity, that motion in matter 

 could not have been from eternity. 



Moreover, if motion is an inherent property of matter, that 

 motion must be the result of a force adequate to produce it ; 

 and that force must be either mechanical or chemical. But 

 that matter contains of itself, and in itself, no mechanical force, 

 is self-evident. Conceive of any body of matter, whether an 

 atom or a world, being in a state of perfect rest : it is evident 

 that that body has within itself no mechanical force adequate 

 to move itself, much less to act upon kindred bodies. It is 

 clear, therefore, that matter has within itself, and originally of 

 itself, no mechanical force adequate to produce motion in 

 any case ; and, therefore, if a body at rest is not acted upon 

 by an extraneous moving force, it will necessarily remain, for 

 aught mechanical forces can do, in precisely the same place, 

 and will possess precisely the same bulk and constituents, to 



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