LAWS OF MOTION. 415 



continue after the energy of the moving cause 

 was altogether lost. An hypothesis such as 

 this may subserve the purpose of fiction, not of 

 truth, and ought not to have been assumed as 

 the basis, from which the phenomena of nature 

 are to be explained ; since these phenomena 

 subsist, independently, and in direct violation 

 of it. If the whole matter of which the uni- 

 verse is composed, were in its nature of the 

 same species as the granite, of which the princi- 

 pal portion of the nucleus of the earth is formed: 

 the attraction of gravitation arising from the 

 quantity of matter might, perhaps, be assumed. 

 If the solar rays did not radiate throughout the 

 whole of the planetary spheres, the existence 

 of a vacuum might, perhaps, be inferred. If 

 expansible bodies did not dilate by their own 

 inherent power, to the utmost possible extent, 

 Comets might be supposed to be bodies fixed, 

 solid* and opake. If matter did not oppose re- 

 sistance to the motion of bodies through it, it is 

 possible that every body might persevere in its 

 state of rest, or of uniform motion in a right 

 line. If all bodies, instead of being active and 

 passive, were all essentially active, instead of a 

 plenum, a vacuum existed, it is possible that 

 reaction might be equal to action. If the sun, 

 instead of being (what it is reasonable to be- 

 lieve it is,) a globe of pure light, were a globe 

 of burning fire, mathematical principles could 



