AND RESISTANCE. 275 



he refers is mere capacity, not power ; it is by 

 calculating the different proportions which ex- 

 ist between the power of the moving cause, and 

 the degree of resistance in the thing to be mo- 

 ved, that is founded the whole science of me- 

 chanics. So far; however, from supposing, 

 that in the motions which different bodies dis- 

 play, there subsists between them a mutuality 

 of action, as Sir Isaac Newton asserts ; that 

 a stone draws a horse, as much as a horse 

 draws a cart; that a stone presses the finger, 

 as much as the finger presses the stone, [Quic- 

 quid premit vel trahit alterum, tetntundem ab 

 eo premitur vel trahitur, si quis lapidem 

 digito premit, premitur et hujus digitus a 

 lapide* Si equus lapidem funi alligatum tra- 

 hit, retrahetur etiam et equus (ut ita dicam) 

 aequaliter in lapidem, &c. &c.] I contend, on 

 the contrary, that an assertion such as this is 

 erroneous in the extreme ; that it is thereby 

 ascribing equal powers to unequal causes ; 

 confounding together inanimate with animated 

 beings, as well as different kinds of matter, 

 whose nature and properties are altogether 

 different ; death and life, passion and action ; 

 things that are moved, with those that have 

 the power of moving; things which derive 

 power through the medium of participation by 

 an external force, with those which possess it 



T 2 



