Suppose, then, a square billiard-table to be placed with its corners
directed to the four cardinal points. Suppose a player, standing at the
north corner, to strike a red ball directly to the south, his design being
to lodge the ball in the south pocket; which design, if not interfered
with, must, of course be accomplished. Then suppose another player,
standing at the east corner, to direct a white ball to the west corner. This
design also, if not interfered with, must be accomplished. Next suppose both
players to strike their balls at the same instant, with like forces, in the
directions before given. In this case the balls would not pass as before,
namely, the red ball to the south, and the white ball to the west, but they
must both meet and strike each other in the centre of the table, and, being
perfectly elastic, the red ball must pass to the west pocket, and the white
ball to the south pocket. We may suppose that the players acted wholly
without concert with each other, indeed, they may be ignorant of each other'
s design, or even of each other's existence; still we know that the events
must happen as herein described. Now, the first half of the course of these
two balls is from an impulse, or proceeds from a power, acting from design.
Each player has the design of driving his ball across the table in a
diagonal line to accomplish its lodgment at the opposite corner of the
table. Neither designed that his ball should be deflected from that course
and pass to another corner of the table. The direction of this second part
of the motion must be referred entirely to necessity, which directly
interferes with the purpose of him who designed the rectilinear direction.
We are not, in this case, to go back to find design in the creation of the
powers or laws of inertia and elasticity, after the order of which the
deflection, at the instant of collision, necessarily takes place. We know
that these powers were inherent in the balls, and were not created to
answer this special deflection. We are required, by the hypothesis, to
confine attention in point of time, from the instant preceding the impact
of the balls, to the time of their arrival at the opposite corners of the
table. The cues aremoved by design. The impacts are acts from design. The
first half of the motion of each ball is under the direction of design. We
mean by this the particular design of each player. But, at the instant of
the collision of the balls upon each other, direction from design ceases,
and the balls no longer obey the particular designs of the players, the
ends or purposes intended by them are not accomplished, but frustrated, by
necessity, or by the necessary action of the powers of inertia and
elasticity, which are inherent in matter, and are not made by any design of
a Creator for this special action, or to serve this special purpose, but
would have existed in the materials of which the balls were made, although
the players had never been born.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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