Publisher's Synopsis
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1754 edition. Excerpt: ... Article IL Some Remarks on the Laws of Motion, and the Inertia oj Matter; by John Stewart, M. D. Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians, and Professor of Natural PhiloJb- phy in the University of Edinburgh. TH E Laws of motion, as delivered by Sir Isaac Newton, are all founded on the supposition, that body of itself is absolutely inactive. And inactivity is now commonly aser bed to matter as one of its general properties; body being defined to be whatever is extended, impenetrable, divisible, moveable, and inactive. At the same time, every one knows, that active powers are continually employed through all the parts of nature. The lise and motion of animals, the production and growth of vegetables, the attractions of gravitation and Cohesion, with other instances of the same kind, are always present to our view. Philosophers who assert the inactivity of matter, ought therefore to be able to give some good reason, why they refuse to allow it the free possession of such powers in its own right; and why it is only to be regarded as a passive instrument, under the direction, and subject to the dominion, of some superior being. But, in order to ascertain the true notion of the inertia of body, the proper' method is to begin with the simplest case; and to consider body as a lifeless inanimated mass, without weight, attraction, repulsion, or any tendency to begin motion, till acted upon by some foreign external cause. And surely it would be somewhat surprising, if body, even in these circumstances, should be found to discover any activity. It hath been imagined however, by some people, " That, if body were utterly unactive, "the smallest force would be sufficient to "move a great body and a little body, with "equal velocity: and that the same...
