Grounds of Natural Philosophy: Divided into Thirteen Parts: The Second Edition, much altered from the First, which went under the Name of Philosophical and Physical OpinionsNewcastle, Margaret Cavendish, Duchess of
Philosophy
Grounds of Natural Philosophy: Divided into Thirteen Parts: The Second Edition, much altered from the First, which went under the Name of Philosophical and Physical Opinions
Newcastle, Margaret Cavendish, Duchess of
Physics -- Early works to 1800
IX. The Conclusion of the irregular and unhappy, or cursed World
The Fifth Part.
Fifteen Sections concerning Restoring-Beds, or Wombs
The Conclusion
GROUNDS OF Natural Philosophy.
The First Part.
CHAP. I. Of MATTER.
Matter is that we name Body; which Matter cannot be less, or more,
than Body: Yet some Learned Persons are of opinion, That there are
Substances that are not Material Bodies. But how they can prove any
sort of Substance to be no Body, I cannot tell: neither can any of
Nature's Parts express it, because a Corporeal Part cannot have an
Incorporeal Perception. But as for Matter, there may be degrees, as,
_more pure_, or _less pure_; but there cannot be any Substances in
Nature, that are between Body, and no Body: Also, Matter cannot be
figureless, neither can Matter be without Parts. Likewise, there cannot
be Matter without Place, nor Place without Matter; so that Matter,
Figure, or Place, is but one thing: for, it is as impossible for One
Body to have Two Places, as for One Place to have Two Bodies; neither
can there be Place, without Body.
CHAP. II. Of MOTION.
Though Matter might be without Motion, yet Motion cannot be without
Matter; for it is impossible (in my opinion) that there should be an
Immaterial Motion in Nature: and if Motion is corporeal, then Matter,
Figure, Place, and Motion, is but one thing, _viz_. a corporeal
figurative Motion. As for a First Motion, I cannot conceive how it can
be, or what that First Motion should be: for, an Immaterial cannot have
a Material Motion; or, so strong a Motion, as to set all the Material
Parts in Nature, or this World, a-moving; but (in my opinion) every
particular part moves by its own Motion: If so, then all the Actions
in Nature are self-corporeal, figurative Motions. But this is to be
noted, That as there is but one Matter, so there is but one Motion; and
as there are several Parts of Matter, so there are several Changes of
Motion: for, as Matter, of what degree soever it is, or can be, is but
Matter; so Motion, although it make Infinite Changes, can be but Motion.
CHAP. III. Of the degrees of MATTER.
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