152 Motion, the Natural State of Matter. 



al nature of the parts of our own bodies, and of the parts of 

 all things objective to us, to which the name of matter is giv- 

 en, are amongst these. 



We come to the knowledge of matter by resistance. 



When a body is brought to a certain state of velocity, from 

 a state of rest, it does not attain that velocity co-instanter 

 with the impact of the impelling power. It passes through 

 all the interm.ediate velocities. The incipience of its motion, 

 describes some part of space ; immeasurable to us, because 

 infinitely small, but it is a part of space. So when matter 

 was created, did it not pass through all the stages of creation? 

 If at its incipience, or at that vanishing point between noth- 

 ing and something which constituted existence, it was sub- 

 jected to motion, then all magnitudes and phenomena objec- 

 tive to us, may be the effect of motion. For a point infinite- 

 ly small, having infinite velocity, and moving in a circle, 

 would appear to be in all parts of the circle at the same time. 

 And if other points with differing velocities were contained 

 within the circle, and the whole area were filled with these 

 orbits, the appearance of a solid would be presented. 



If any other point with an equal velocity, or with a lesser 

 one, were directed against it, the points of resistance within 

 the disk, being as it were in all the parts of it at the same 

 time, the disk could never be penetrated. It would have the 

 properties of a solid as far as contact is concerned ; and 

 would appear to be so to the eye as far as vision is concern- 

 ed : thus satisfying the two senses by which we judge of eve- 

 ry thing. The wheels formed by fireworks, the points of con- 

 centrated fire having intense velocity, and which pass with 

 such rapidity through the air in long and zigzag lines, as to 

 appear to be in many places at the same apparent time, and 

 which we call lightning, are familiar illustrations of this ef- 

 fect of motion. 



Motion then appears a sufficient means to raise those in- 

 finitely small states of matter to tlje magnitude and phenom- 

 ena of which we form a part. The same motive law that 

 governs the parts, may govern the masses of the universe, 

 and the planetary bodies be an aggregate of the movements 

 of the infinitely small points, and constituting one grand sim- 

 ple movement from the infinitely small to the infinitely great. 

 The mind rebounds at the simple grandeur of such a scheme 

 of creation, when it pauses to consider the instantaneous 

 disparition of all phenomena, which would result from the sus- 

 pension of that original motion which omnipotence produced. 



