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can he measu red or computed, besides the very effecta or motions them selves. Sir Isaac Newton assis, have not the minute particles of hodies certain forces or powers by whicli they acto on one another, as wellas on the particles of light, for producing most of the phaenomena in nature t But in reali ty, those minute particles a re only agitated according to certa in laWs of nature, by se me other agent, wherein the force exis sand not in them. Which have only the motion; whicli motion in thebody moved, the Peripatetics rightly judge to be a mere passion, but in
et 31. It pasieth with many, I know not how, that mechanical principies give a clear solution of the Phaenomena. The Democritic hypothesis, faith doctor Cud worth, doth much more hand mely and intelligibly solve the phaenomena, than that of Aristolle and Plato. But things rightly considered, perhaps it Will be sound not to solve any phaenomenon at all. For ait phaenomena are, to speali truly, appearances in theso ut or mind, and it liath ne ver been explained, nor can it be expla ined, how externat dies, figures and motions mouid produce an appea rance in the mind. These principies, there re, do not solve, is by sol ving is meant assigning the reat, ei ther essicient or final cause of appearances, buton ly reduce them to generat rules. 232. There is a certa in analogy, constancy, and uniformi ty in the phaenomena or appearances of nature, Whicli are a foundation sor generatrules: and these a re a grammar sor the undevianding of nature, or that series of essects in the visibio worid, whereby we are enabled to fore ewhat wili come to past, in the naturat course of things. Plotinus observes, in his third aeneid, that the ari os presaging is in some fori therea dira et os natural letters denoting order, and that so far sorti, as analogy
Thi; subject is handi ed at large in the Latin tract de motu.
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obtains in the universe, there may be vaticination. And in reali ty, hethat foreteis the motions of the planeis, or the effects of medicines, orthe resulis of chymical or mechanical experimenis, may be seid to do it by natural vaticination. 233. We know a thing when we understand it: and we understandit, When we can interpret or teli what it signifies. Strictly the senseknows nothing. We perceive in deed sound s by hearing, and characters by si1 ght. But we are not there re seid to understand them. Aster the
fame manner, the phaenomena of nature are alike visibie to ait: hut althave not alike learned the conneXion os natural things, or understandwhat they signist, or linow how to vaticina te by them. There is noquestion, salth Socrates, in Theaeteto, concerning that Whicli is agreeable to each person; but concerning what will in time to come be agreea-ble, of hicli ali men are not equalty judges. He who sereknowethwhat will be in every kind is the wisest. According to Socrates, you and the cook may judge of a dissi on the table equalty well, but while thedisti is making, the cook can bet ter se retet what will ensue Dom this orthat manner os composing it. Nor is this manner of rea ning confinedon ly to morais or politics; but extends also to natural science. 25 . As the natural connexion os signf with the things signified is regular and constant, it forms a sori os rationat discour se ' and is there sore the immediate effect os an intelligent cause. This is agreeable totho philosophy of Plato, and other ancients. Plotinus in deed salth, that whicli acts naturalty is not intellection, but a certa in power of movinginatior, whicli doth not know but only do. And it must be owned, that, as faculties a re multiplied by philosophers according to their operations, the will m ay be distinguis hed froni the in tellect. But it will
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not there re solio , that the will, Whicli operates in the course of nature, is not conducted and applied by intelleci, although it be granted that nei ther will understands, nor intellest Wills. There re, the phae nomena es nature, whicli strike on the senses and are underctood by the mind, do sorm not only a magnificent spectacle, hut also a mos coherent, entertaining, and instructive discourse; and to effect this, theyare conducted, adjusted, and ranged by the greatest Wisdom. This lana guage or discourse is studied with disserent attentiora, and interpreted with disserent degrees of skill. But so far as men have nudied and rema rhed iis rules, and can interpret right, se far they may be seid to hoknowing in nature. A beast is like a man who hears a strange longue, but understands nothing. 2ss. Nature, stilli the learned doctor Cud orth, is not master of artor Wisdom : nature is ratio mersa et confusa, reason immergedand plungedinto matter, and as it were fuddled in ii and con unded with it. Butthe formation os planis and animais, the motions os natural hodies, their Vario u S properties, appea rances and vicissitudes, in a Word, the whole series of things in this visibie worid, which we cali the course of nature, is so wisely managed and carried on, that the most improve ilium an reason cannot thoroughly comprehend even the least particle
236. Natural productions, it is true, a re not ali equalty persest. Butnei ther doth it fuit with the order of things, the structure of the uni- Verse, or the ends of Providen ce that they mould be Q. Generat rules, we have seen , are necessary to malae the worid intelligible: and Domthe constant observations of such rules, natural eviis Will semetimes un-
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arrive at different degrees of persection. 257. It must be o ned, we are not conscious of the systole and diastole of the heari, or the motion of the di aphragm. It may not never-thelest be thence inferred, that unknowing nature ean act regularly, asweli as ourselves. The true inserenoe is, that the self thinhing individual, or human person is not the reat author of those natural motions.
in fact no man blames himself is they are wrong, or values himself isthey are right. The fame may be se id of the fingers of a musician, whicli seme object to be moved by habit whicli understands not , it he-ing evident, that what is done by rule must proceed stom semething that understands the rute; theresere, is not hom the musici an himself, Dom me other active intelligence, the fame perhaps which go vertas bees and spiders, and moves the limbs of those who walli in their seep.
258. Instruments, occasions, and signf occur in , or rather malle u P, the whole visibie murse of nature. These, heing no a genis them selve' a re under the direction of one agent concerting ali sor one cnd, the supreme good. All those motions, whether in animal hodies or in other paris of the system os nature, whicli are not effects of particular Wilis, stem to spring froin the fame generat cause Mith the vegetation of 'planis, an aetheriat spirit actualed by a mind.2sq. The first poets and theologers of Greece and the East considered the generation of things, as ascribed rather to a divine cause, but the Physici to natural causes subordinate io, and directed stili by a divine; excepi se me corporealist s and mechanics who va in ly pretended to mahea world without a God. The hidden force that unites, adjusts, and causeth ait things to hang together, and move in harmony, whicli Or-
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mind , mouid not preten d to assign any other cause of them. Heblames physiologers for attem Pting to account sor Phaenomena, particu larly for gravi ty and cohesion, by Vortexes and aether, over looking theri αυαρ., and iis διιν, the strongest bond and cernent whicli holds together altthe paris of the universe, and not discerning the cause it self nom thosethings whicli only attend h. 261. As ire the microcota, the constant regular tenor of the motions of the viscera, and contained juices doth not hinder, particular voluntary motions to be impressed by the mind on the animal spirit, even soin the mundane system, the steady observance of certain laws of nature. in the grosser masies and more conspicuous motions, doth not hinder, buta voluntary agent may semetimes communicate particular impressions tothe fine aetheriat medium, whicli in the wor id an siners the animal spiritin man. Which two is they a re two although invisibie and inconceiva-hly small, yet stem the real latent springs, whereby ali the paris of this visibie wor id a re movest; albeii they are not to b2 regar ded as a true cause, but only an instrument of motion ; and the instrument not as A, hel p to the Creator, but only as a sigra to the creature.
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262. Plotinus supposeth that the so ut os the universe is not the original cause or author of the species, but receives them Dom intellect, thetrue principie of order and distinction, the sotarce and gi ver of form s. Others consider the vegetative foui only as se me to er faculty of a higher Qui, whicli animates the fiery aetheriat spirit '. As for the bio is and defects whicli appear in the cour se of this Horid, whicli some have thought to proceed from a fatality or necessi ty in nature, and others Doman evit principie, that se me philosopher observes, that it may be the go- verning reason produceth and orda ineth ait tho se things ; arid, not intend ing that ali paris mould be equalty good, maheth some worse than others by design, as ali paris in an animal are not Cyes: and in a city comedyor picture ali rantis, characters, and colours a re not equat or alitie; evenso excesses, defecta, and contrary qualities, conspire to the heauty and harmony of the worid. 263. It cannot be dented, that With respect to the universe of things, we in this mortes state, are like men educated in Plato's cave, looking on adows with our backs turn ed to the light. But though our light bedim, and our siluation bad, yet is the best use be made of both, perhaps mething may be seen. Proctus, in his commentary on the theology of Plato, observes there a re t o soris of philosophers. The one placedhody first in the order of beings, and made the faculty of thin king de..pend thereupon, supposing that the principies of ali things are corporeal: that body most reatly or principalty exists, and ali other things in a se condary sense, and by virtve of that. Others, mali ing ali corporeat thingsto he dependent upon Qui or mind, thinh this to exist in the first placeand primary sense, and the being of bodies to be altogether derived Dom, and presui pose that of the mind.
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26 . Sense and experiente acquaint us, With the cour se and analogyos appearances or natural effect3. Thought, reason, intellect, introducetis into the knowledge of their causes. Sensi bie appearances, though ofa fio ing unstabie and uncerta in nature, yet having first occupied themind, they do by an early prevention, render the aster lassi of thought more dissiculi; and as they a muse the eyes and ears, and are more sui tedio vulgar uses and the mechanio aris of li se, they ea si ly obtain the preser- ence, in the opinion os most men, to tho se superior principies, whicli aretho later growth of the human mind arrived to maturity and perfection, but, not affecting the corporeat sense, are thought to he so far deficient in potnt of solidi ty and reali ty, sensibie and real to common apprehensions being the fame thing. Although it be certain, that the principies of science are ne i ther objects of sense nor imagination; and that intellect anctreason a re alone the lare guides to truth. 263. The successsul curiosi ty of the present age, in aris and experiments and ne G systems, is apt to elate men, and malae them overi Oolithe ancients. But not illi standing that the encouragement and purse of princes, and the uni ted en de avo urs of great societies in these later ages, have extended experimental and mechanical lino ledge very far, yet it must be owned, that the ancients too were not ignorant of many things', as weli in physics as metaphysics, whicli perhaps are more generalis, though not first known in these modern times.
266. The Pythagoreans and Platonists had a notion of the true system of the worid. They allowed os mechanical principies, but actualed by Qui or milad: they distingui med the primary qualities in boni es Domthe secondary, maliing the former to be physical causes, and they un-dcrstood physical causes in a right sense : they saw that a mind infinite
in pOGer, Un extended, invisibie, immortal, go verned, connected an d
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contained ali things: they saw there Was no such thing as real absolute space : that mind, Qui or spirit, truly and reatly egi sis: that hodies existoraly in a secondary and dependent sense: that the ut is the place of
fornis: that the sensibie qualities are to be regarded as adis only in thecause, and as pastions in Us : they accurately considered the differen cesos intellect, rationat Qui, and sensitive so ut, with their distinct acts of intellection, rea ning, and sensation, potnts where in the Cartesilans and their solio ers, who consider sensation as a mode of thinhing, stem toliave falled. They lineis there was a subtile aether pervading the wholemasi os corporeal beings, and which was it self actually moved and directed by a mind: and that physical causes were only instruments, or rat hermarks and signS. 267. Those ancient philosophers understood the generation os animal sto consis , in the unsolding and distending of the minute impercepti ble paris of pre-existing animalcules, whicli passeth sor a modern discovery: this they took sor the work of nature, but nature animate and intelligent they undersi ood that ali things were alive and in motion: theysupposed a concord and discord, union and dilanion in particles semeat tracting, others repelling each other: and that those attractions and repulsions, so various, regular, and useful, could not be accounted sor, hut by an intellige nce presiding and directing ali particular motions, forthe conservation and benefit of the whole. 268. The AEgyptians, who impersonat ed nature, had made her a distinet principie, and even dei ited her under the na me of Isiis. But Osiris was under stood to be mind or reason, chi es and fovereim os ali. Osiris, is we may belle ve Plutarch, was the firs , pure, unmixed and holy principie, not discerni ble by the lower faculties; a glimpse whereos likeligi te ning dari ing sortii, irradiates the understanding; With regard to
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whiel, Plutarch adds, that Plato and Aristolle termed one part os philo
269. Although the AEgyptians did symboli catly represent the supreme divini ty sitiing on a lotus, and that gesture hath been interpreted to signisy, the most holy and venerable heing to be utierly at rest reposing within himself ; yet, for any thing that appears, this gesture might denote digni ty as weli as repose. And it cannot be dented, that Jamblichus, solino ing in the AEgyptian notions, tau glit there Was an intellest that Proceeded to generation, drawing sortii the latent powers into light in the formation of things. Nor was this to be understood os an externalworid, subsisting in real absolute space ; sor it was a doctrine of those ancient seges, that Qui was the place of Orms, as may be seen in the twelfth book of the arcane part os divine Wisdom, according to the AEgyptians. This notion was embraeed by divers philosophers of Greece, who may be supposed to have derived it frona the fame urce,
stom Whence many of their other opinions were draWn. 27 o. The doctrine of real absolute externat space, induced some modern philosophers to conclude it was a pari or attribute of God, or that
God himself was space; inasmuch as incommunicabie attributes of the deity appeared to agree thereio, lach as infinity, immutability, indivisibility, incorporeity, being uncreated, impassive, without beginning orending ; not considering that ait these negative properties may belong tonothing. For nothing hath no limiis, cannot be moved or changed, ordi vided, is neither created nor destroyed. A different Way of thinhingVo L. II. 4 F appears
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appears in the Hermato as Weli as other Wri tings of the ancients. Withregard to absolute si ace, it is observed in the Asclepian dialogue; that the word space or place hath by itself no mean ing; and again, that itis impossibie to understand what space alone or pure space is. And Plotinus achnowledgeth no place but Qui or mind, expres ly assirming that the Qui is not in the worid, but the worid in the foui. An d sarther, the
place of the foui, faith he, is not body, but so ut is in mirad, and body in i ul. Sce the third chapter of the fifth book of the fifth aeneid.
27Ι. Concerning absolute space, that phantom of the mechanic geometrical philosophers ', it may sussice to observe, that it is nei ther perceived by any sense, nor proved by any reason, and was accordingly treat ed by the greatest of the ancients as a thing me rely visionary. From the notion of absolute space springs that os absolute motion '; and in theseare ultimately unded the notions of externat existence, independence, necessi ty, and late. Whicli fate, the idol of many moderns, was by old philosophers differently understood, and in such a sense as not to destroythe of God or man. Parmenides, who thought ali things to bemade by necessi ty or late, understood justice and providen ce to be thesame with fate; which, hois fixed and cogent foe ver With respeet toman, may yet be voluntary with respect to God. Empedocles declared
late to be a cause using principies and elements. Heraclitus taught that late Was the generat rea n that runs through the whole nature of the. Sect. 25O.' Our judgment in these matters is not to be overborn by a presumed evidence os mathematical notions and reas nings, since it is plain, the mathematicians of this age em brace obscure notiolas, and uncertain opinions, and are puggled abo ut them, contradi lingeach other and disputing like other meta : witne si their doctrine os fluxions, about whichwith in these ten years I have seen publimed above twenty tradis and dissertations, whose authors being ulterly at variance, and inconsistent with each other, instruct bystanders what to think of their pretensons to evidence.