34 T^^ Wisdom of GOD Part L 

 ter difplay and reprove than in the Words oF 

 Cicero, in the Beginning of his firft Book De 

 Finibus Bonoriim & Malorum. This Declination 

 (faith he) is altogether childifhly feign'd, and 

 yet neither doth it at all folve the Difficulty, or 

 effed: what they defire : For, firft, They fay the 

 Atoms decline, and yet affign no Reafon why. 

 Now nothing is more fhameful and unworthy 

 a Natural Philofopher \turpius Phyjico] than to 

 aflert any thing to be done without a Caufe, or 

 to give no Reafon of it. Befides, this is con- 

 trary to their own Hypothefis taken from Senfe, 

 that all Weights do naturally move perpendi- 

 cularly downwards. Secondly, Again fuppofing 

 this were true, and that there were fuch a Decli- 

 nation of Atoms, yet will it not effedt what they 

 intend ; for either they do all decline, and fo 

 there will be no more Concourfe than if they did 

 perpendicularly defcend ; or fome decline, and 

 fome fall plum down, which is ridiculoufly to 

 affign diftindt Offices and Tasks to the Atoms, 

 which are all of the fame Nature and Solidity. 

 Again, in his Book De FatOy he fmartly derides 

 this fond Conceit thus 5 What Caufe is there in 

 Nature which turns the Atoms afide ? Or do 

 they caft Lots among themfelves which fhall 

 decline, which not ? Or why do they decline the 

 leaft Interval that maybe, and not a greater? 

 why not two or three minima as well as one ? 

 Optare hoc quidem eji non dijpiitare. , For nei- 

 ther is the Atom by any extrinfical Impulfe di- 

 verted from its natural Courfe ; neither can there 

 be any Gaufe imagin'd in the Vacuity through 

 I which 



