unreasonable to imagine and affirm that the cool venal Blood should be heated to fo high a Degree in fo fhort a Time as the Interval of two Pulfes, which is less than the fixth Part of a Minute. Secondly, in cold Animals, as for Example, Eels, the Heart will beat for many Hours after it is taken out of the Body, yea, tho' the Ventricle be open'd, and all the Blood squeez'd out. Thirdly, The Procefs of the Fibres which compound the Sides of the Ventricles running in Spiral Lines from the Tip to the Base of the Heart, fome one Way, and fome the contrary, do clearly fhew that the Syftole of the Heart is nothing but a Mufcular Conftriction, as a Purse is fhut by drawing the Strings contrary-ways; which is alfo confirmed by Experience: For if the Vertex of the Heart be cut off, and a Finger thrust up into one of the Ventricles, in every Systole the Finger will be fenfibly and manifeftly pinch'd by the Sides of the Ventricle. But for a full Confutation of this Fancy, I refer the Reader to Dr. Lower's Treatife De Corde, cap. 2. and Des Cartes's Rules concerning the transferring of Motion from one Body in Motion to another in Motion, or in Rest, are the most of them by Experience found to be false; as they affirm who have made Trial of them.

The Pulfe of the Heart Dr. Cudworth would have to be no Mechanical, but a Vital Motion, which to me seems probable, because it is not under the Command of the Will; nor are we conscious of any power to cause, or to restrain it, but it is carried on and continued without our

Know

Knowledge, or Notice; neither can it be caufed by the Impulse of any external Movent, unless it be Heat. But how can the Spirit, agitated by Heat, unguided by a vital Principle, produce fuch a regular reciprocal Motion? If that Site which the Heart and its Fibres have in the Diastole be moft natural to them, (as it feems to be) why doth it again contract it felf, and not reft in that Pofture? If it be once contracted in a Syftole by the Influx of the Spirits, why, the Spirits continually flowing in without Let, doth it not always remain fo? [for the Systole feems to resemble the forcible Bending of a Spring, and the Diaftole its flying out again to its natural Site.] What is the Spring and principal Efficient of this Reciprocation? What directs and moderates the Motions of the Spirits? They being but stupid and fenfeless Matter, cannot of themselves continue any regular and constant Motion, without the Guidance and Regulation of fome intelligent Being. You will fay, What Agent is it which you would have to effect this? The fenfitive Soul it cannot be, because that is indivisible; but the Heart when feparated wholly from the Body in fome Animals, continues ftill to pulfe for a confiderable Time: Nay, when it hath quite ceas'd, it may be brought to beat a-new by the Application of warm Spittle, or by pricking it gently with a Pin, or Needle. I answer, it may be in these Inftances, the fcattering Spirits remaining in the Heart, may for a Time, being agitated by the Heat, cause these faint Pulfations; tho' I should rather attribute them to a plaftick

Nature,

Nature, or vital Princple, as the Vegetation of Plants must also be.

But, to proceed, neither can I wholly acquiefce in the Hypothefis of that Honourable and defervedly Famous Author, I formerly had Occafion to mention, which I find in his free Enquiry into the vulgar Notion of Nature, p. 77, 78. deliver'd in these Words. "I think it probable, "that the great and wife Author of Things did, " when he first form'd the Universe and undistinguish'd Matter into the World, put its Parts "into various Motions, whereby they were neceffarily divided into numberlefs Portions of "differing Bulks, Figures, and Situations, in Re

fpect of each other: And that by his infinite "Wisdom and Power, he did fo guide and over"rule the Motions of these Parts, at the Beginning of Things, as that (whether in a shorter

66

or a longer Time, Reafon cannot determine) they were finally difpos'd into that beautiful " and orderly Frame that we call the World; among whose Parts fome were fo curiously "contriv'd, as to be fit to become the Seed, or "feminal Principles, of Plants and Animals. And, I further conceive, that he fettled fuch Laws, or Rules, of local Motion among "Parts of the Univerfal Matter, that by his or

the

dinary and preferving Concourse, the several "Parts of the Univerfe thus once compleated, "fhould be able to maintain the great Con

ftruction, or Syftem, and Oeconomy of the "Mundane Bodies, and propagate the Species "of living Creatures." The fame Hypothefis he

repeats

repeats again, pag. 124, 125. of the fame Treatife.

This Hypothefis, I fay, I cannot fully acquiefce in, because an intelligent Being feems to me requifite to execute the Laws of Motion: For firft, Motion being a fluent Thing, and one Part of its Duration being abfolutely independent upon another, it doth not follow, that because any thing moves this Moment, it must neceffarily continue to do fo the next, unless it were actually poffefs'd of its future Motion, which is a Contradiction; but it ftands in as much Need of an Efficient to preferve and continue its Motion, as it did at firft to produce it. Secondly, Let Matter be divided into the fubtileft Parts imaginable, and these be mov'd as fwiftly as you will, it is but a fenfeless and ftupid Being ftill, and makes no nearer approach to Senfe, Perception, or vital Energy, than it had before; and do but only stop the internal Motion of its Parts, and reduce them to Reft, the finest and most fubtile Body that is, may become as grofs, and heavy, and stiff, as Steel, or Stone. And, as for any external Laws, or eftablifh'd Rules of Motion, the ftupid Matter is not capable of observing, or taking any Notice of them, but would be as fullen as the Mountain was that Mahomet commanded to come down to him; neither can thofe Laws execute themselves : Therefore there muft, befides Matter and Law, be fome Efficient, and that either a Quality, or Power, inherent in the Matter it felf, which is hard to conceive, or fome E external

external intelligent Agent, either God himself immediately, or fome Plaftick Nature.

Happening lately to read The Chriftian Virtuofo, written by the fame Author of the Enquiry into the vulgar Notions of Nature, (the illuftrious Mr. Boyle) I find therein thefe Words: "Nor will the Force of all that has been faid"for God's fpecial Providence be eluded, by faying, with fome Deifts, That after the first "Formation of the Universe, all Things were brought to pass by the fettled Laws of Nature. "For though this be confidently, and not without Colour, pretended, yet, I confefs, it doth " not fatisfie me:- -For I look upon a Law as a Moral, not Phyfical Cause, as being indeed "but a notional Thing, according to which an intelligent and free Agent is bound to regulate "its Actions. But inanimate Bodies are utterly

uncapable of understanding what it is, or what "it enjoins, or when they act conformably, or "unconformably to it: Therefore the Actions "of inanimate Bodies, which cannot incite, or "moderate their own Actions, are produced by "real Power, not by Laws.

All this being confonant to what I have here written, against what I took to be this Honourable Perfon's Hypothefis, I muft needs, to do him Right, acknowledge my felf mistaken; perceiving now, that his Opinion was, that God Almighty did not only establish Laws and Rules of local Motion among the Parts of the univerfal Matter, but did, and does alfo himself, execute them, or move the Parts of Matter, according

to