_MADAM,_
The _Author_, mentioned in my former Letter, says, _That Quietness is
the degree of Infinite slowness, and that a moveable body passing
from quietness, passes through all the degrees of slowness without
staying in any._ But I cannot conceive that all the Parts of Matter
should be necessitated to move by degrees; for though there be degrees
in Nature, yet Nature doth not in all her actions move by degrees. You
may say, for example, from one to twenty, there are eighteen degrees
between One, and Twenty; and all these degrees are included in the
last degree, which is twenty. I answer; That may be: but yet there
is no progress made through all those degrees; for when a body doth
move strong at one time, and the next time after moves weak; I cannot
conceive how any degrees should really be made between. You may say, by
Imagination. But this Imagination of degrees, is like the conception of
Space and Place, when as yet there is no such thing as Place or Space
by it self; for all is but one body, and Motion is the action of this
same body, which is corporeal Nature; and because a particular body
can and doth move after various manners, according to the change of
its corporeal motion, this variety of motions man call's Place, Space,
Time, Degrees, &c. considering them by themselves, and giving them
peculiar names, as if they could be parted from body, or at least be
conceived without body; for the Conception or Imagination it self is
corporeal, and so are they nothing else but corporeal motions. But it
seems as if this same _Author_ conceived also motion to be a thing by
it self, and that motion begets motion, when he says, That a body by
moving grows stronger in motion by degrees, when as yet the strength
was in the matter of the body eternally; for Nature was always a grave
Matron, never a sucking Infant: and though parts by dissolving and
composing may lose and get acquaintance of each other, yet no part
can be otherwise in its nature, then ever it was; Wherefore change of
corporeal motions is not losing nor getting strength or swiftness; for
Nature doth not lose force, although she doth not use force in all
her various actions; neither can any natural body get more strength
than by nature it hath, although it may get the assistance of other
bodies joyned to it. But swiftness and slowness are according to
the several figurative actions of self-moving matter; which several
actions or motions of Nature, and their alterations, cannot be found
out by any particular Creature: as for example, the motions of Lead,
and the motions of Wood, unless Man knew their several causes; for
Wood, in some cases, may move slower then Lead; and Lead, in other
cases, slower then Wood. Again: the same _Author_ says, _That an heavy
moveable body descending, gets force enough to bring it back again to
as much height._ But I think, it might as well be said, That a Man
walking a mile, gets as much strength as to walk back that mile; when
'tis likely, that having walked ten miles, he may not have so much
strength as to walk back again one mile; neither is he necessitated to
walk back, except some other more powerful body do force him back: for
though Nature is self-moving, yet every part has not an absolute power,
for many parts may over-power fewer; also several corporeal motions may
cross and oppose as well as assist each other; for if there were not
opposition, as well as agreement and assistance amongst Nature's parts,
there would not be such variety in Nature as there is. Moreover, he
makes mention of a _Line, with a weight hung to its end, which being
removed from the perpendicular, presently falls to the same again._
To which, I answer: That it is the appetite and desire of the Line,
not to move by constraint, or any forced exterior motion; but that
which forces the Line to move from the Perpendicular, doth not give it
motion, but is onely an occasion that it moves in such a way; neither
doth the line get that motion from any other exterior body, but it
is the lines own motion; for if the motion of the hand, or any other
exterior body, should give the line that motion, I pray, from which
doth it receive the motion to tend to its former state? Wherefore, when
the Line moves backwards or forwards, it is not, that the Line gets
what it had not before, that is, a new corporeal motion, but it uses
its own motion; onely, as I said, that exterior body is the occasion
that it moves after such a manner or way, and therefore this motion
of the line, although it is the lines own motion, yet in respect of
the exterior body that causes it to move that way, it may be called a
forced, or rather an occasioned motion. And thus no body can get motion
from another body, except it get matter too; for all that motion that a
body has, proceeds from the self-moving part of matter, and motion and
matter are but one thing; neither is there any inanimate part of matter
in Nature, which is not co-mixed with the animate, and consequently,
there is no part which is not moving, or moved; the Animate part of
matter is the onely self-moving part, and the Inanimate the moved:
not that the animate matter doth give away its own motion to the
inanimate, and that the inanimate becomes self-moving; but the animate,
by reason of the close conjunction and commixture, works together with
the inanimate, or causes the inanimate to work with it; and thus the
inanimate remains as simple in its own nature, as the animate doth in
its nature, although they are mixt; for those mixtures do not alter the
simplicity of each others Nature. But having discoursed of this subject
in my former Letters, I take my leave, and rest,
Madam,
_Your faithful Friend_
_and Servant._