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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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the greatest bodies , are exerting upon each other in every moment of time and through every part of space . It is found that this is not confined to bodies collected in a mass , but that the planetary bodies are continually exerting it upon each other . This influence forms a balance to that motion originally communicated to them , and thus preserves them in their particular orbits . "
cc In short , when the vast power and continual action of matter is considered , no character can be less appropriate for its designation than its being dead and inert . I understand the word dead as here app lied to signify , not merely the want of animal ' life , but a total incapacity of action r now , there is not one
particle of matter which is not every moment exerting the power of action by attraction , adhesion , or some other mode . I understand inertness to mean the want of power , or an incapacity of motion : but no kind of matter wants
power ; the most apparently sluggish is capable of exerting a variety of powers ; and if the individual kinds do not possess the capacity of motion , they are collectively capable of it in all degrees , insomuch that it is impossible for one kind to be within the reach of another
power without exerting motion ; and it is by means of this necessary action , that all the motion of the universe is maintained . " Lest these remarks should lead to atheistical conclusions , he very j . TOperly observes < That there is no kind of matter
which can direct the circumstances of its own action , nor are any of these kinds possessed of an original and inherent power of action by itself . All material action is produced by a joint effort betwixt the different particles , and no one particle can act unless it is acted upon . 1 his will be f ound to be
universally the case . 1 nereis no combination that can change another , withcut being itse . f changed ; and as every combination has a tendency to preserve itsc . f from change , it cannot be considered as the original cause of change .
In order to effect a change , two or more of these powers must be , as it were , carried to the field , and set in battle array against each other ; but they can neither seek to provoke a quarrel , nor march to find out the enemy . The magnet can ho more go in
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search of the iron , than the iron can gfr in search of the magnet . " " All the changes which take place in nature are produced by the alteration of circumstances , and not by any
directive capacity in the powers of matter The powers of matter can no more produce the circumstances , than the circum * stances can produce the powers ; and when circumstances present themselves , their powers cannot cease to act . "
The author then goes on to support these doctrines by an ex * amination of the chemical properties gf caloric and light . In the course of this examination he L led to consider the source or
origin of caloric—and imagines contrary to the commonly received opinion , that it is not transmitted to us from the sun , but is a subtile fluid , originally belono t ing to our earth .
c < In its journey from the sun , its progress is supposed to be equal to 200 , 000 miles in a second . It is said to have a twofold motion through body : by the first it is supposed to be transmitted , and to pass through with the same velocity as through void space ; secondly , to
be conducted through it , and to pass with different degrees of slowness . Admitting that caloric is possessed of an equal power of being transmitted or conducted thrcftfjjh different bodies , it might at least be expected that the velo * city of its passage through the same
body would always be equal : but this is by no means the case . In its approach , to the earth , it is supposed to pass through the atmosphere with the velocity of transmission , so that the upper regions are not warmed by it ; but it is very certain that its retrograde marches through the . atmosphere , in
order to diffuse an equal temperature among bodies , are very slow . It is entirely contrary to the unalterable nature of the material powers to act different in exactly similar circumstances . They have but one mode of acting , and this mode is invariable , as has been formerly shewn . How then is this to be accounted
for ? * u The action of light always corresponds with tlie velocity ascribed to it J its effects are "instantaneously felt over
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158 Physical and Metaphysical Inquiries
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), March 2, 1807, page 158, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2378/page/46/
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