LAWS OF MOTION. 419 



Had Sir I. Newton, confined himself to as- 

 certain, and to proclaim the effects o.nly that 

 take place in the planetary system ; there could 

 have been but one opinion respecting him, and 

 all must have bowed to that transcendent ma- 

 thematical knowledge which he possessed. But 

 when he attempted to account for the causes 

 of those effects, (of those motions,) by assuming 

 that the heavenly bodies were composed of 

 matter dense and solid, like the earthly matter 

 of our globe ; that attraction was an innate 

 force in matter, and that gravitation universally 

 prevailed ; I contend, that these assumptions on 



trigonometry ; or assign the cause of vegetation, and of ratio- 

 cination, from the theory of conic sections, he would deservedly 

 provoke the laughter, and incur the contempt of all ranks and 

 degrees of people ; and that he who attempts to guess at 

 causes, (and it can be called nothing else than guessing,) 

 merely from 4he appearance and superficies of things that 

 present themselves, and who makes the mistress wait upon the 

 handmaid, goes first to work with mathematics, and computes 

 by observation and experiment, the proportion of the motions 

 of bodies in particular cases ; and then infers, by deduction, 

 from what he sees, in such particular cases alone, the causes 

 of those motions which take place universally and generally. 

 He who does this, makes very great and fatal mistakes : be- 

 sides obstructing the path leading to the knowledge of the 

 particular fact, it prevents him from coming at any universal 

 truth. Judging in this way, is judging from effects only; 

 we see bodies moving, and therefore ought to conclude, that 

 they move themselves, by an inherent power they possess, or 

 else that the Deity is substantially present with them, and 

 moves them by his immediate influence. 



