V. HAving, in the foregoing Section, propos’d some of the Considerations, that have dissatisfied me with the Receiv’d Notion of Nature, it may now be justly expected, that I should also consider, what I foresee will be alledg’d in Its behalf, by the more Intelligent of Its Favourers. And I shall not deny the Objections, I am going to name against my Opinion, to be considerable, especially for this Reason, that I am very unwilling to seem to put such an Affront upon the generality as well of Learned Men as of Others, as to maintain, that they have built a Notion of so great weight and importance upon slight and inconsiderable Grounds.
The Reasons, that I conceive may have induced Philosophers to take up, and rely on, the Receiv’d Notion of Nature, are such as these that follow.
And the first Argument, as one of the most obvious, may be taken from the general Belief, or, as Men suppose, Observation, that divers Bodies, as particularly Earth, Water, and other Elements, have each of them its natural Place assign’d it in the Universe; from which Place, if any portion of the Element, or any mixt Body, wherein that Element predominates, happens to be remov’d, it has a strong incessant Appetite to return to it; because, when ‘tis there, it ceases either to gravitate, or (as some School-men speak) to levitate, and is now in a place, which Nature has qualifi’d to preserve it, according to the Axiom, that Locus conservat locatum.
To this Argument I answer, that I readily grant, that, there being such a Quantity of very bulky Bodies in the World, ‘twas necessary they should have Places adequate to their bigness; and ‘twas thought fit by the wise Architect of the Universe, that they should not be all blended together, but that a great Portion of each of them should, at the beginning of things, be dispos’d of and lodg’d in a distinct and convenient Place. But when I have granted this, I see not any necessity of granting likewise, what is asserted in the Argument above-propos’d. For Inanimate Bodies having no Sense or Perception, (which is the Prerogative of Animadversive Beings) it must be all one to them in what Place they are, because they cannot be concern’d to be in one Place rather than in another, since such a preference would require a knowledg, that Inanimate things are destitute of. And, for the same reason, a Portion of an Element, remov’d, by force or chance, from what they call its proper Place, can have no real Appetite to return thither: For, who tells it ‘tis in an undue Place, and that it may better its Condition by removing into another? And who informs it, whether that Place lies on this hand of it, or that hand of it, or above it, or beneath it? Some Philosophers indeed have been somewhat aware of the weakness of the Argument, drawn from the vulgarly propos’d Instance (which yet is the best that is wont to be imploy’d,) of Earthy Bodies, which being let fall from the top of an House, or thrown into the Air, do of themselves fall, in a direct Line, towards the Centre of the Earth; and therefore they have strengthned this Argument, as far as might be, by pretending, that these Bodies have not indeed, as former Philosophers were wont to think, an Appetite to descend to the Centre of the Earth, but to the great Mass of their Connatural Bodies. I I will not therefore accuse these Philosophers of the inconsiderate Opinion of their Predecessors, who would have Nature make all heavy Things affect to lodg themselves in the Centre of the Earth, which (as was formerly noted,) being but a Point, cannot contain any one of them, (how little soever it be;) but yet the Hypothesis of these Moderns is liable, though not to that, yet, to other weighty Objections.
For the First Argument, I lately imploy’d, will hold good against these Philosophers too, it not being conceivable, how an Inanimate Body should have an Appetite to re-joyn Homogeneous Bodies, neither whose situation, nor whose distance from it, it does at all know.
Secondly, It does not appear that all Bodies have such an Appetite, as is presum’d, of joyning themselves to greater Masses of Connatural Bodies; as, if you File the end of an Ingot or Bar of Silver or of Gold, the Filings will not stick to their own Mass, though it be approach’d never so near, or made to touch them, and much less will they leap to it, when ‘tis at a distance from them. The like may be said almost of all Consistent Bodies we are acquainted with, except the Loadstone and Iron, and Bodies that participate of one of those two.
Thirdly, ‘Tis obvious to them that will observe, that, that which makes Lumps of Earth, or Terrestrial Matter, fall through the Air to the Earth, is some general Agent, whatever that be, which, according to the wise disposition of the Author of the Universe, determines the Motion of those Bodies, we call heavy, by the shortest ways that are permitted them, towards the Central part of the Terraqueous Globe; Whether the Body, put into Motion downwards, be of the same, or a like, or a quite differing nature, from the greater Mass of Matter, to which, when ‘tis aggregated, it rests there? If, from the side of a Ship, you let fall a Chip of Wood out of your Hand, when your Arm is so stretch’d out, that the Perpendicular, or shortest Line, between that and the Water, lies never so little without the Ship, that Chip will fall into the Sea, which is a fluid Body, and quite of another Nature than itself, rather than swerve in the least from the Line of Direction, as Mechanicians call it, to rejoyn itself to the great bulk of Wood, whereof the Ship, though never so big, consists. And, on the other side, if a Man, standing upon the Shore just by the Sea, shall pour out a Glass of Water, holding the Glass just over his Feet, that Water will fall into the Sand, where ‘twill be immediately soak’d up and dispersed, rather than deviate a little, to joyn itself to so great a Mass of Connatural Body, as the Ocean is.