INTRODUCTION. XXXIX 



still maintains motion in it and its parts ; 

 causing it to observe certain general and local 

 laws ; and upholds, in the whole and every 

 part, those several powers and operations that 

 have been thus produced; that action and 

 counteraction every where observable, by 

 which all things are maintained in their 

 places ; observe their regular motions and 

 revolutions ; and exhibit all those phenomena 

 that are produced under certain circum- 

 stances. Whatever names philosophers have 

 used to designate such powers, they have a 

 real substance and being, and are a something 

 that can act and operate, and impart a mo- 

 mentum. 



Lord Verulam's two hands of nature, 

 whereby she chiefly worketh, 1 heat and cold, 

 synonymous, according to some, with positive 

 and negative electricity; 2 the plastic nature 

 of Cudworth, and some of the ancients ; the 

 spirit of nature of Dr. Henry More; 3 and the 

 ether of Sir Isaac Newton, all seem to ex- 

 press or imply an agency between the Deity 

 and the visible world, directed by him. At- 



1 Bacon's Works, iii. Nat. Hist. Cent. i. p. 69. 

 * See Lit. Gaz. January 7, 1835, p. 43. 

 3 See VOL. II. p. 254. 



