582 Additional Notes. 



Hutchinson and his followers against the philosophy of Xewtofi, 

 as if it were hostile to revelation -, and, above all^ for the suspicion 

 indulged by him, that sir Isaac and Dr. Clarke had formed a de- 

 sign, " by introducing certain speculations, founded on their new 

 mode of philosophising, to undermine and overthrow the theology 

 of Scripture, and to bring in the heathen Jupiter, or the stoical 

 Anima Mimdi into the place of the true God/' 1 believe that 

 notliing was further from the minds of those great men, than to 

 represent matter 36 possessing inherent activit^j. If any who pro- 

 fess to be their followers be chargeable with fallhig into this errour, 

 none can be too severe upon the atheistical tenet. In the New- 

 tonian system, the attraction ascribed to all matter is not an in- 

 dependent principle or agent, but simply a fact, referred for its first 

 and continued existence to the immediate power of God. If 

 either class of philosophers be chargeable with going too far in at- 

 tempting to ascertain causes, and in ascribing agencies to material 

 objects^ it appears to me to be the Hutchinsonians. 



Note (C), p. 22. — The learning and talents of father Bosca- 

 vich are universally acknowledged ^ and he is represented as 

 '** unstained in his morals, sincerely attached to the Christian re- 

 ligion, and exact in the performance of all Christian duties, as be- 

 came a catholic priest."- His publications on Mathematicsy Optics, 

 Astronomy i Hydrodynamics, &c., render him one of the most distin- 

 guished men of the age. 



The friends of the 'Theory of Natural Philosophy laid be- 

 fore the public by this celebrated Italian speak of it in the 

 higliest term's and consider it as one of the noblest etforts of mo- 

 dern genius. It has been substantially adopted by Mr. Mitchel, 

 by Dr. Priestley, and by some other distinguished writers on the 

 physical sciences, who all regard it as relieving philosophy from 

 many pressing difficulties, and opening the way to much new and 

 important light. One groat objection to this system immediately 

 presents itself to the mmd, and has been forcibly urged against 

 It, viz. — If every particle of matter be strictly inextended, wherein 

 does it differ from that eiv; rationis, a mathematical point, xvithout 

 parts or magnitude ? or rather, wherein does it differ from a mere 

 point of space ? "Will not the adoption of this system conduct its 

 advocate a step further, and lay him under the necessity of denying 

 the Ttal existence of a material world, and of supposing that what 

 we call by that name is a mere system of attractions and repulsions^ 

 without any substunct in which they can inhere ? It is proper to 



