MATTER. 



s'eems highly probable, that God in the 

 beginning 1 formed matter into solid, 

 massy, impenetrable, moveable particles, 

 or atoms, of such sizes and figures, and 

 with such other properties, and in such 

 proportion to space, as most conduced to 

 the end for which he formed them ; and 

 that these primitive particles, being so- 

 lids, are incomparably harder than any 

 porous bodies compounded of them, 

 even so hard as never to wear or break 

 in pieces ; no ordinary power being able 

 to divide what God himself made one in 

 the first creation. -While these particles 

 continue entire, they may compose bo- 

 dies of one and the same nature and tex- 

 ture in all ages ; but should they wear 

 away, or b real; in pieces, the nature of 

 things depending on them may be chang- 

 ed. Water and earth, composed of old 

 worn particles and fragments of parti- 

 cles, would not be of the same nature 

 and texture now, with water and earth 

 composed of entire particles in the be- 

 ginning; and therefore, that nature may 

 be iasling, the changes of corporeal 

 things are to be placed only in the va- 

 rious separations and new associations of 

 motions of these permanent particles, 

 compound bodies being apt to break, not 

 in the midst of solid particles, but where 

 these particles are laid together, and only 

 touch in a few points. 



Dr. Berkeley argues against the ex- 

 istence of matter itself; and endeavours 

 to prove that it is a mere -ens rationis, and 

 has no existence out of the mind. Some 

 late philosophers have advanced a new 

 hypothesis concerning the nature and es- 

 sential properties of matter. 



The first of these who suggested, or at 

 least published an account of this hypo- 

 thesis, was M. Boscovich, in his " Theoria 

 Philosophise Naturalis." lie supposes, 

 that matter is not impenetrable, but that 

 it consists of physical points only, endued 

 with powers of attraction and repulsion, 

 taking place at different distances, that is, 

 surrounded with various spheres of at- 

 traction and repulsion ; in the same 

 manner as solid matter is generally sup- 

 posed to be. Provided, therefore, that 

 any body move with a sufficient degree 

 of velocity, or have sufficient momen- 

 tum to overcome any power of repul- 

 sion that it may meet with, it will find 

 no difficulty in making its way through 

 any body whatever. If the velocity of 

 such a body in motion be sufficiently 

 great, Boscovich contends, that the par- 

 ticles of anybody through which if- pass. 



VOL. IV 



es, will not even be moved out of their 

 place by it. 



With a degree of velocity something 

 less than this, they will be considerably 

 agitated, and ignition might perhaps be 

 the consequence, though the progress of 

 the body in motion would not be sensi- 

 bly interrupted ; and with a still less mo- 

 mentum it might not pass at all. Mr. 

 Mitchell, Dr. Priestley, and some others 

 of our own country, are of the same opi- 

 nion. See Priestley's " History of Dis- 

 coveries relating to Light," p. 390. In 

 conformity to this hypothesis, this author 

 maintains, that matter is not that inert 

 substance that it has been supposed to 

 be ; that powers of attraction or repul- 

 sion are necessary to its very being, and 

 that no part of it appears to be impene- 

 trable to oilier parts. Accordingly, he 

 defines matter to be a substance, possess- 

 ed of the property of extension, ami of 

 powers of attraction or repulsion, which 

 are not distinct from matter, and foreign 

 to it, as it has been generally imagined, 

 but absolutely essential to its very nature 

 and being : so that when bodies are di- 

 vested of these powers, they become no- 

 thing at all. In another place, Dr. Priest- 

 ley has given- a somewhat different ac- 

 count of matter : according to which it is 

 only a number of centres of attraction 

 and repulsion; or more properly of cen- 

 tres, not divisible, to which divine agen. 

 cy is directed ; and as sensation and 

 thought are not incompatible with these 

 powers, solidity, or impenetrability, and 

 consequently a vis inertix only having- 

 been thought repugnant to them, he 

 maintains, that we have no reason to sup- 

 pose, that there are in man two sub- 

 stances absolutely distinct from each 

 other. See " Disquisitions cu Matter 

 and Spirit." 



But Dr. Price, in a correspondence 

 with Di-. Priestley, published under the 

 title of " A Free Discussion of the Doc- 

 trines of Materialism and Philosophical 

 Necessity," 1778, has suggested a variety 

 of unanswerable objections against this 

 hypothesis of the penetrability of matter, 

 and against the conclusions that are 

 drawn from it. The vis inert) x of mat- 

 ter, he says, is the foundation of all that 

 is demonstrated by natural pbilospliers 

 concerning the laws of the collision of 

 bodies. This, in particular, is the foun- 

 dation of Newton's philosophy, and es- 

 pecially of his three laws of motion. 

 Solid matter has the power of acting on 

 other matter by impulse ; and this is the 



