M O T I O N, 
it 5 or to take out execution pending a writ of error; 
to amend the pleadings or other proceedings in the courfe 
of a fuit; or to.fet afide a judgment of non pros, or of 71011- 
J'uit; or a verdiCt, or inquiiition. Or, z. They are for 
fomething to be done out of the common and ordinary 
courfe of the fuit; as for the defendant to abide by his 
plea, to refer it to the mafter to affefs the damages, with¬ 
out a writ of inquiry; for the execution of a writ of in¬ 
quiry before a judge ; or to have a good jury upon the 
execution of luch writ; fora trial at bar, or in an adjoin¬ 
ing county. 
On behalf of the defendant, motions are, to quafh the 
writ, juftify bail, reverie an outlawry ; or, after feveral 
rules for time to declare, that the plaintiff declare pe¬ 
remptorily; to fet afide an interlocutory judgment for 
irregularity, as being iigned contrary to good faith ; or 
upon an affidavit of merits, to fet allele or day proceed¬ 
ings in a&ions upon bail-bonds or in other aftions, if ir¬ 
regular or unfounded; and, if the defendant is a prifoner, 
to difeharge him out of cuftody upon common bail; or, 
if the proceedings are regular, to flay them upon terms ; 
to compound penal addons, change the venue; confoli- 
date adions, or (trike out l'uperfluous counts ; for time to 
plead or reply, &c. under fpecial circumftances, to plead 
feveral matters, or pay money into court, &c. The de¬ 
fendant alio, as well as the plaintiff, may move for a con¬ 
cilium, or judgment, on a demurrer, fpecial verdict, or 
writ of error; to amend ; for a trial at bar, or in an ad¬ 
joining county; for a view or fpecial jury, to have wit- 
neffes examined on interrogatories, &c. &c. 
A motion is in general accompanied with an affidavit, 
and fometimes preceded by a notice. The affidavit ffiould 
be properly intitled, and contain'a full ftatement of all 
the circumftances neceftary to fupport the application: 
and the rather, as it is a rule not to receive any fupple- 
mentary affidavit on fhowing caufe. On the day appointed 
for that purpofe, the counlel for the party called upon 
by the rule, may Ihow caufe againft it, either upon or 
without an affidavit, as circumftances require. On {flow¬ 
ing caufe againft the rule, the court either make it abfo- 
lute, or difeharge it, and that either with or without the 
cofts of the application ; or Inch cofts are direded to abide 
the event of the fuit; according to the difcretion of the 
court under all the circumftances of the cafe. 
In B. R. one ought not to move the court fora rule for 
a thing to be done, which by the common rules of practice 
maybe done without moving the court; nor {hall the 
court be moved for doing what is againft the practice of 
the court: one ought not to move for feveral things in 
one motion; and, where a motion hath been denied, the 
fame matter may not be moved again by another counfel, 
without acquainting the court thereof, and having their 
leave for the fame. If any thing be moved to the court 
aipon a record, the record is to be in court, or the court 
will make no rule upon luch motion. Jacob's Law T>i 6 l. 
MO'TION, f. That part of philolophy which conliders 
bodies as adding on each other. 
The dodrine and laws of motion make the fubjed of 
mechanics, or ftatics. One of the ancient philofophers, 
when he was alked to give a delcription of motion, is 
faid to have w'alked acrofs the room, and to have replied, 
“ You fee it; but what it is I cannot tell you.” 
Motion, then, is agreed to be the traftllation of a body 
from place to place; but authors differ much when they 
come to explain in what this tranllation confifts. And 
hence their divifions of motion become exceedingly pre¬ 
carious. Ariftotle, and the Peripatetics, divide all mo¬ 
tion into natural and violent: the firft is that which has 
its principle, or moving force, within the moving body: 
fuch is that of a (tone falling towards the centre of the 
earth. The fecond is that whole principle is without, and 
againft which the moving body makes a refiftance: fuch 
is that of a ftone thrown upwards. 
The moderns generally divide motion into dbfolute and 
relative. Abjilutc motion is the change of abfolute place. 
107 
in any moving body; whole celerity, therefore, will be 
meafured by the quantity of abfolute fpace which the 
moveable body runs through. Relative motion is a mu¬ 
tation of the relative or vulgar place of the moving body; 
and has its celerity eftimated by the quantity of relative 
fpace run through. 
Others divide motion into proper, and improper, or 
foreign. Proper motion is a removal out of one proper 
place into another, which thus becomes proper, as being 
polfeffed by this body alone, in exclulion of all others. 
Such is the motion of a wheel in a clock. Improper, 
extraneous, foreign, or common, motion, is the paflage 
of a body out of one common place into another com¬ 
mon place : fuch is that of a clock when moving in a 
fliip, &c. 
The reafon of all this diverfity feems to arife from 
not attending to the different meanings of the words, but 
comprifing all in one definition and divilion; which they 
ffiould rather have diftinguilhed into feveral parts. Some, 
e. gr. in their definitions of motion, confider the moving 
body, not as it regards the adjacent bodies, but as it re¬ 
gards immovable and infinite fpace. Others, again, con¬ 
fider the moving body, not as it regards infinite fpace, but 
as it regards other bodies very remote. And others, laftly, 
confider the moving body, not as it regards remote bo¬ 
dies, but that furface only to which it is contiguous. 
But, thefe various meanings being once fettled, the dis¬ 
pute is terminated. For, as every thing that moves may 
be coniidered in thefe three feveral manners, there hence 
arife three feveral kinds of motions ; of thefe, That which 
regards the parts of infinite immovable fpace, without 
confideration of the circumambient bodies, may be called 
abfolutely and truly-proper motion. That which regards 
circumambient bodies very remote, which may themfelves 
poffibly be removed, we call relutively-coinmon motion. The 
laft, which regards the furfaces of the next contiguous 
bodies, inafmuch as it may want all both ablolute and 
common motion, we call relatively-proper motion. 
The Cartefians maintain, that the Creator at the begin¬ 
ning impreffed a certain quantity of motion on bodies ; 
and that under fuch laws, as that no part of it Ihould be 
loft, but the fame portion of motion ffiould be conftantly 
preferved in matter : and hence they conclude, that, if 
any moving body ftrike on any other body, the former 
lofes no more of its motion than it communicates to the 
latter. This principle fir Ifaac Newton overturns in the 
following words: “From the various compofitions of 
two motions, it is manifeft there is not always the fame 
quantity of motion in the world ; for, if two balls, joined 
together by a {lender wire, revolve with an uniform mo¬ 
tion about their common centre of gravity, and at the 
fame time that centre be carried uniformly in a right line 
drawn in the plane of their circular motion, the fum of 
the motions of the two balls as often as they are in a 
right line, drawn from their common centre of gravity, 
will be greater than the fum of their motions when they 
are in a line perpendicular to that other. Whence it ap¬ 
pears, that motion may be both generated and loft. But, 
by reafon of the tenacity of fluid bodies, and the fridion 
of their parts, with the weaknefs of the elaftic power in 
folid bodies, nature feems to incline much rather to the 
deltrudion than the production of motion ; and, in reality, 
motion becomes continually lets and lei’s. For bodies 
which are either fo perfectly hard, or fo foft, as to have 
no elaftic power, will not rebound from each other: their 
impenetrability will only (top their motion. And, if two 
fuch bodies, equal 1 to each other, be carried with equal, 
but oppofite, motions, fo as to meet in a void fpace, by 
the laws of motion they muft Itop in the very place of 
concourfe, lofe all their motion, and be at reft for ever; 
unlefs they have an elaftic power to give them a new 
motion. If they have elafticity enough to enable them 
to rebound with i, or or J, of the force wherewith 
they meet, they will lofe f, or §, or of their motion. 
And this is confirmed by experiments: for, if two equal 
pendulums 
