PART xm. EPICURUS.

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becaufe that which is fimple cannot be changed, nnlefs by going away into nothing. Or at leafl:, if they admit that fomthing common remains, which is firfl: Fire, afterwards Air j fince this fomthing is the firfl and common Matter, the firfl Matter is not of itfelf, either Fire or Air, but rather thofe Atoms which being put together on one Fafhion,may make Fire ^ being put toge¬ ther after anbther Fafhibn, may make Air.
They who admit many, or all things, to be equally firfl, run moreover into this inconveni¬ ence, that making them contrary to one another, they by confequence make them fuch, as either can never join to make one Compound, or, if they do, mull deflroy one another.
There was a natural Philofopher, who con¬ ceived that all things are generated of tenuious little Bodies, which he called HomoiomereCs^ ft- milar., or like Parts ( as it were, ) viz., to the things generated ; fo as thofe ( for Example, ) of which hot things are made* are hot ^ thofe of which flefhy things, flefhy ^ thofe of which bloody thing, bloody ; and fo of the refl. Rut if Principles were of the fame Nature with the things generated, they might, as well as they, be altered and lofe their Qualities, and fo be changed, and being of a fimple Nature go in¬ to nothing.
Not to prefs, t^at if the things, whei eby fom- thing is made hot, mufl be hot • as if things alike be not generated but of their like •, there mufl alfo be things laughing, that a iaughing Animal may be made of them ; and things wee¬ ping, that a weeping Animal • and the like.
CHAP. X.
Of the firfl and radical Caufe of Compounds , that ' M, of the Jgent^ or Ejficient.
IT followeth. That we fpeak of Cainfes^ fince to the making of any thing,is necefliiry, not only Matter, of which , but a Caufe, by which it may be made ; wherefore to fay a Caufe is no other, than to fay, that which in the pro- duclion of a thing is the Agent, or Efficient.
Now of the things that are made, no other firfl and radical Caufe is to be required , than the fame Atoms themfelves as they are endued with that vigour, by which they are moved, or continually tending to Motion, Neither is it abfurd to make Matter a^five, it is rather ab- furd to make it unaftive, becaufe they, who make it fuch, and yet will have all things to^be made out of it , cannot fiy, from whence the things that are made, have their Efficient pow- •er , fince they cannot have it elfe where than from Matter.
Therefore , as the firfl little Compounds made up of Atoms have in themfelves a certain Energy, or power to move themfelves, and to adl, confining of the vigours of each feveral Atom, but varioufly modifi’d *, as fome of them mutually entangling one another are carried hi¬ ther, others thither *, fo the greater Compounds made up of the lefler have fome power alfo, and that modified according to their Variety and every natural Body confifling of thofe ■greater and leffer Compounds , and Atoms ,
hive a particular Energy, or power of moving themfelves, and afting , modified by a certain Reafon. Tims, Motion or Aclion afeends to and proceeds from it’s very Principles.
Vet we mufl obfei vc, That though all Atoms are moved alike fwiftly, yet within the Com¬ pounds thcmielvcs, thofe which are more cor¬ ner’d and hooked , are intangled and hindred, and fo made as it were more lluggifli and dull’ than the fmcocher and rounder. Wherefore the Energy, or power of ading, which is in com¬ pound Bodies, chiefly comes of thefe. And be¬ caufe thofe, of which Fire, the Soul, and tliofe which are more generally termed Spirits, con- 11 fl, arc of this nature, hence it comes, that the chiefefl Energy in Bodies, is from thofe very Spirits ^ which, as they have Liberty of running up and clown, fo they have alfo Dominion with¬ in thofe Bociies.
But torafmuch as all Effeclion, or Aftion, whereby fomthing is made, is either from an internal, or external Principle, it is manifefl, that artificial things whofe Nature is lluggiffi, and meerly paffive, own all their Produftion to the Efficient, or external Agent. But natural things,akbough they borrow fome part of them¬ felves., or' fome Principle of acting from an ex- trinfecal Caufe, yet they owe their Production to the Principles contained within themfelves, as from which intrinfecally,accordingtoall their Parts, they are ordered and co-apted.
Moreover, the very Aftion of the external Agent is from its own internal Principles, which always fo turn and direft the Adion, astnat it may'with greater Strength fuflain the Violence of moft things. For even in fenfitive Creatures, where there is a kind of voluntary Aftion, it is therefore fuch , and carried rather this way than that way, becaufe there occurs to the Mind a Specie's inviting it, rather this way than that way ; and the .Mind , through the Dominion whereby it ruleth the Spirit contained in the Body, leads them this way and not that way ; and together with them, the Members in v./hich they are.
C H A P. XI.
Of Moi ion which is (he fame with Altion., or Effe- and of Fortune.^ hate., End.^ and fympa- thetiCal and antipathetical Caufes.
IN the mean time, I fhall not need to make any Excufe, for that I confound the Aclion or EfFedion of a Caufe with Motion \ fince it is known, that both of thefe are one with Mo¬ tion, and only add the Connotation, and for that it mull be terminated' to the thing done or effeded.
I underftand here no other Motion, than that which is Migration from place to place, which for the moft part it called Lation, and tranfi- ent Motion, and local Motion. For thus they name it in Diftindion from that Motion, which fome ufe to call Mutation and Alteration *, that wereby a thing remaining unmoved, according to its internal Nature, is, as they conceive , changed or altered through Acquifition, or lofs of fome Qiiality, as Heat, or Cold.
C c c c 2 Thij
564
EPICURUS.