LAWS OF MOTION. 407 



It has been in direct violation of these self- 

 -evident truths, of the absolute and essential 

 -difference which exists in the different species 

 of matter existing in the universe, that the 

 Newtonian laws of nature are founded, 1. By 

 supposing that reaction was always equal, and 

 contrary, to action, he has confounded capa- 

 city with power things inanimate with ani- 

 mated beings, and demanded a condition of 

 things to exist, which has no existence, space 

 without matter. 2. By insisting on the doctrine 

 of universal gravitation, he has confounded under 

 the same law, bodies whose properties are toto 

 coelo different from .each other; toe has not 

 only confounded matter solid and fluid, opake 

 and rare, active and passive, but even extend- 

 ed this unnatural law to the whole planetary 

 system ; and finally concluded, that the mo- 

 tion of the heavenly bodies are governed by the 

 same laws as the rotten apple that fell from 

 the tree in his garden, and which laid the foun- 

 dation for the whole of the system. Had that 



has been formed, and which serves as a connecting medium, 

 between the solid and the liquid parts of the earth, and the 

 matter of light. An element, strictly speaking, is not pro- 

 duced by any composition of different species of matter; but 

 becomes the primary agent, in the process of composition ; or 

 as JOHNSON elegantly expresses it, * It is the first and consti- 

 tuent principle of any thing.' 



