Let us the wife pofitions now furvey
Of Ariftotle's fchool, who's pleas'd to say
Nothing can move itself, no inward power
To any being motion can procure.
Whate'er is mov'd, its motion muft derive
From fomething else, which muft an impulse give:
And yet no being motion could begin;
Elfe motion might not have eternal been.
That matter never did begin to move,
But in th' immenfe from endless ages ftrove,
The Stagyrite thus undertakes to prove.
He fays, of motion time the measure is;
Then that's eternal too, as well as this.
Motion through ages without limit flows,
Since time, its measure, no beginning knows.
This feeble bafe upholds our Author's hopes,
And all his mighty fuperftructure props.
On this he all his towering fabric rears,
Sequel on fequel heaps, to reach the spheres.
But if this definition you deny
Of time, on, which his building does rely,
You bring his lofty Babel from the sky;
A thoufand fine deductions you confound,
Scatter his wafte philofophy around,
And level all his ftructure with the ground.
We then this definition thus defeat:
Time is no measure, which can motion meet;
For men of reasoning faculties will fee,
That time can nothing but duration be
Of beings; and duration can fuggest
Nothing or of their motion, or their reft;
Only prolong'd exiftence it implies, Whether the thing is mov'd, or quiet lies. "This fingle blow will all the pile subvert, So proudly rais'd, but with fo little art.
But, fince the Author has fuch fame acquir'd,
And as a God of fcience been admir'd,
A ftricter view we 'll of his fyftem take,
And of the parts a fhort examen make.
Let us obferve, what light his scheme affords,
His undigested heap of doubtful words.
Great Stagyrite, the loft enquirer show
The fpring, whence motion did for ever flow;
Since nothing of itself e'er moves or strives,
Tell what begins, what the first impulfe gives.
Hear how the man, who all in fame furmounts,
For motion's fpring and principle accounts.
To his fupreme, unmov'd, unactive God,
He the first sphere appoints, a blest abode ;
Who fits fupinely on his azure throne,
In contemplation of himself alone;
Is wholly mindless of the world, and void
Of providential care, and unemploy'd.
To all the spheres inferior are affign'd
Gods fubaltern, and of inferior kind:
On these he felf-existence does confer,
Who, as the God fupreme, eternal are;
With admiration mov'd, and ardent love,
They all their spheres around in order move;
And from these heavenly revolutions flow
All motions, which are found in things below.
If you demand by what impulfive force The Under-Gods begin their circling course : He fays, as things defirable excite
Defire, and objects move the appetite;
So his first God, by kindling ardent love,
Does all the Gods in feats inferior move:
Thus mov'd, they move around their mighty spheres,
With their refulgent equipage of stars;
From fphere to sphere communicate the dance,
Whence all in heavenly harmony advance ;
And from this motion propagated rife
All motions in the earth, and air, and skies.
And thus by learned Aristotle's mind
All things were form'd, yet nothing was defign'd. 345
He owns no choice, no arbitrary will,
No artift's hand, and no exerted skill;
All motion flows from neceffary fate,
Which nothing does refift, or can abate;
Things fink and rife, a being lose or gain
In a coherent, undiffolving chain
Of caufes and effects, which Nature's course sustain.
Th' unmoveable Supreme the reft does move,
As proper objects raise desire and love;
They, mov'd without their choice, without confent, 355
Move all their spheres around without intent :
Whate'er he calls his moving cause, to chuse
He gives that cause no power, or to refuse.
And thus from fate all artful order springs,
This rear'd the world, this is the rife of things.
Now give us leave to afk, great Stagyrite!
How the first God th' inferior does excite.
Of his own fubftance does he parts convey,
Whofe motive force the Under-Gods obey?
If fo, he may be chang'd, he may decay.
But if by steadfast gazing they are mov’d,
And admiration of the object lov'd;
If those below their motive force acquire
From the ftrong impulse of divine defire;
Tell us, what good your God Supreme can grant, 370 Which those beneath, to make them happy, want.
If admiration of the God Supreme,
And heavenly raptures, should their breasts inflame,
Is that of motion a refiftlefs caufe,
Of motion constant to eternal laws?
Might not each fecond God inactive lie
On his blue sphere, and fix his ravish'd eye
On the Supreme Unmoveable, and ne'er
Be forc'd to roll around his folid sphere?
Say, how could wonder drive them from their place?
How in a circle make them run their race ?
How keep them fteady in one certain pace?
He this a fundamental maxim lays,
That Nature wifely acts in all her ways;
That Nature, not endued with skill or art,
Of liberty of choice, of reafon void,
Still wifely acts, where-ever she's employ'd?
Can actions be denominated wife,
Which from a brute neceffity arife,
Which the blind agent never did intend,
The means unchofen, and unknown the end?
On this be laid the ftrefs of this debate ;
What wifely acts can never act by fate.
The means and end must first be understood;
The means, as proper; and the end, as good;
The act must be exerted with intent
By using means to gain the wish'd event.
But can a fenfelefs and unconscious cause,
By foreign impulfe mov'd, and fatal laws,
This thing as good, and that as fit, refpect,
Design the end, and then the means elect ?
Nature, you grant, can no event intend,
Yet that the acts with prudence you pretend
So Nature wifely acts, yet acts without an end!
Yet while this Prince of science does declare
That means or ends were never Nature's care,
That things, which feem with perfect art contriv'd,
By the refiftless force of fate arriv'd;
This cautious mafter, to secure his fame,
And 'fcape the Atheist's ignominious name,
Did to his Gods of all degrees allow
Counsel, defign, and power to chufe and know.
Yet, fince he's pleas'd fo plainly to affert,
His Gods no act of reafoning power exert,
No mark of choice, or arbitrary will,
Employ'd no prudence, and exprefs'd no skill,
In making or directing Nature's frame,
Which from his fate inevitable came;
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