MATTER. 
bodies. Thus, for instance, water, rarified 
by heat, becomes vapour ; great collect 
tions of vapours form clouds ; these con- 
densed descend in the form of hail or rain ; 
part of this collected on the earth consti- 
tutes rivers ; another part mixing with the 
earth enters into the roots of plants, and 
supplies matter to, and expands itself into 
various species of vegetables. In each 
vegetable it appears in one shape in the 
root, another in the stalk, another in the 
flowers, another in tlie seeds, &c. From 
hence various bodies proceed ; from the 
oak, houses, ships, &c. from hemp and flax 
we have thread ; from thence our various 
kinds of linen ; from tlience garments ; 
these degenerate into rags, which receive 
from tlie mill the various forms of paper ; 
hence our books. 
According to Sir Isaac Newton, it seems 
highly probable, that God in the beginning 
formed matter into solid, massy, impene- 
trable, 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 par- 
ticles being solids, are incomparably hasder 
than any porous bodies compounded of 
them, evexi so liard as never to wear or 
break in pieces j no ordinary power being 
able to divide what God himself made one 
in the first creation. While these particles 
continue entire, they may compose bodies 
of one and the same nature and texture in 
all ages ; but should they wear away, or 
break in pieces, the nature of things de- 
pending on them may be changed. Water 
and earth, composed of old worn particles 
and fragments of particles, would not be 
of the same nature and texture now, with 
water and earth composed of entire par- 
ticles in the beginning ; and therefore, that 
nature may be lasting, the changes of cor- 
poreal things are to be placed only in the 
various separations and new associations of 
motions of these permanent particles, com- 
pound 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 exist- 
ence of matter it*elf; 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 hypo- 
thesis concerning the nature and essential 
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 Natumlis.” He supposes, that 
matter is not impenetrable, but that it con- 
sists of physical points only, endued with 
powers of attraction and repulsion, taking 
place at different distances, that is, sur- 
rounded with various spheres of attraction 
and repulsion ; in the same manner as solid 
matter is generally supposed to be. Pro- 
vided therefore that any body move with 
a sufficient degree of velocity, or have 
sufficient momentum to overcome any 
power of repulsion that it may meet with, 
it will find no difficulty in making its way 
through any body whatever. If the velo- 
city of such a body in motion be sufficient- 
ly great, Boscovich contends, that the par- 
ticles of any body through which it passes, 
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 conse- 
quence, though the progress of the body in 
motion would not be sensibly interrupt- 
ed ; and with a still less momentum it might 
not pass at all. Mr. Michell, Dr. Priestley, 
and some others of our own country, are of 
the same opinion. See Priestley’s “ History 
of Discoveries 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 repulsion are 
necessary to its very being, and that no 
part of it appears to be impenetrable to 
other parts. Accordingly, he defines mat- 
ter to be a substance, possessed of the 
property of extension, and of powers of 
attraction or repulsion, which are not dis- 
tinct from matter, and foreign to it, as it 
has been generally imagined, but absolute- 
ly essential to its very nature and being : 
so that when bodies ai-e divested of these 
powers, they, become nothing at all. In 
another place. Dr. Priestley has given a 
somewhat different account of matter : ac- 
cording to which it is only a number of cen- 
tres of attraction and repulsion ; or more 
properly of centres, not divi.sible, to which 
divine agency is directed ; and as sensation 
and thought are not incompatible with these 
powers, 'solidity, or impenetrability, and 
consequently a vis inertiae only having been 
thought repugnant to them, he maintains, 
that we have no reason to suppose that 
