j6 HISTORY of the SOCIETY. 



ing or repulfive power ; its coheGon, weight, &c. the efforts of 

 attractive power ; and fo with refpect to all its other properties. 



But if this be granted, and if it be true that in the material 

 world every phenomenon can be explained by the exiftence of 

 Power, the fuppolition of extended particles as a Jubjlratum or 

 refidence for fuch power, is a mere hypothecs, without any 

 countenance from the matter of fact. For if thefe folid parti- 

 cles are never in contact with one another, what part can they 

 have in the production of natural appearances, or in what fenfe 

 can they be called the refidence of a force which never acts at 

 the point where they are prefent ? Such particles, therefore, 

 ought to be entirely difcarded from any theory that propofes to 

 explain the phenomena of the material world. 



Thus, it appears, that power is the effence of matter, and that 

 none of our perceptions warrant us in confidering even body as 

 involving any thing more than force, fubjected to various laws 

 and modifications. 



Matter, taken in this fenfe, is to be confidered as indefinite- 

 ly extended, and without inertia. Its prefence through all fpace 

 is proved by the univerfality of gravitation ; and its want of in- 

 ertia, by the want of refiftance to the planetary motions. Thus, 

 in our inquiry concerning phyfical caufes, we are relieved from 

 one great difficulty, that of fuppofing matter to act where it is 

 not. The force of gravitation, according to this fyflem, is not 

 the action of two diitant bodies upon one another, but it is the 

 action of certain powers, diffufed through all fpace, which may 

 be tranfmitted to any diftance. There feems to me, however, 

 to remain a difficulty hardly lefs than that from which we ap- 

 pear to be relieved, viz. to affign a reafon why the intenfity with 

 which fuch powers act on any body, fhould depend on the pofi- 

 tion and magnitude of all the bodies in the univerfe, and fhould 

 bear to thefe continually the fame relation. But, however this 

 be, the ingenuity of Dr Hutton's reafonings cannot be queftion- 



ed, 



