272 FOWER AND RESISTANCE. 



resistance, as is generally supposed, it is resisf- 

 ance alone that diminishes and ultimately des- 

 troys action. Hence it is that bodies move 

 slower in a liquid than in a gaseous medium ; 

 faster through a liquid than through a solid one- 

 Notwithstanding this most obvious truth, it 

 is nevertheless contended by Sir Isaac Newton, 

 that the motion produced in different bodies, 

 is occasioned by a mutuality of power, subsist- 

 ing between them. It is far otherwise ; such 

 is the absolute inertness of the body which is 

 to be moved, that it is not only indebted to the 

 efficacy of the moving power for the velocity, 

 but for the line of motion also, which is pro- 

 duced. The degree of motion which is pro- 

 duced is the proof or test which subsists of the 

 power in the one, to overcome the resistance of 

 the other. It is by virtue of the inherent power 

 of acting, which animated beings in general 

 possess, that they are enabled to overcome re- 

 sistance and produce action, to act, without 

 being acted upon, to move without being mov- 

 ed; that a horse is enabled to draw a cart 

 without the cart drawing the horse ; that the 

 pen with which I write is enabled to describe 

 the letters I am writing, the paper having the 

 capacity* alone of resisting the impulse which 



* By capacity I mean something which is passive only, and 

 by power something which is active and efficient. Capacity 



