Some considerations touching the usefulnesse of experimental naturall philosophy. Propos'd in familiar discourses to a friend, by way of invitation to the study of it / [Anon].

  • Boyle, Robert, 1627-1691.
Date:
1663
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Some considerations touching the usefulnesse of experimental naturall philosophy. Propos'd in familiar discourses to a friend, by way of invitation to the study of it / [Anon]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    107/600 (page 77)
    two others much more cdnfiderable, which our Author is fain to take for granted in his Hypothecs: For 6'y> He iuppofes his Eternal Atoms to have from Eternity been their own Movers, whereas it is plain that Motion is no way neceflary to the El- fence of Matter, which feems to confiftin extenfion: For Matter is no lefs Matter, w?hen it refts, then when it is in mo¬ tion •, and we daily fee many parcels of Matter pafs from the ft ate of motion to that of reft, and from this to that, com¬ municating their motion to Matter that lay ftill before, and thereby looling it themfelves. Nor has any Man, that I know, fatisfaeftorily made out how Matter can move it felf: And indeed, in the Bodies which we here below converfe with¬ al, wefcarcefindethat any thing is mov'd but by fomething elie 5 and even in thefe motions of Animals that feem fponta- neous, the Will or Appetite doth not produce the motion of the Animal, but guide and determine that of the Spirits, which by the Nerves move the Mufcles, and fo the whole Body, as may appear by the wearinefs and unweildinefs of Animals, when by much motion the Spirits are fpent. And accordingly I finde that Anaxagoras, though he believed, as Ariflotle did after him, that Matter was Eternal, yet he dif- cern'd that the notion of Matter not neceflarily including mo¬ tion, there was a necefiity of taking in a Mens, as he ftiles God, tofetthis fluggifh Matter a moving. And I remem¬ ber tariff otic himfelf, in one place of his Metaphyficks, di- Mifiou Met** fputing againft (ome of the antienter Philofophers, askes,pW:/^ Jjhfonamque mo do movebuntur fi nulla erit aclu can fa ? non emm 6i ip fa materia feipfam movebit rerum opifexVirtus : But though eliewhere I have met with PafTages of his near of kin to this, yet he feems not to exprefs his Opinion uniform¬ ly and clearly enough to engage me to define it or make a Weapon of it: And therefore I fliall rather proceed to take notice, That according to the Epicurean Hypothecs, not onely the motion, but the determination of that motion is fuppofecl • Tor Epicurus will have his Atoms move downwards, and that I - - “ T ' .f. ‘ not