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ejserttialid Matter, &c.

XIV. But yet farther, as this resistance inblatter to change its state cannot be ultimate-ly taken off, lessened, or anyway altered, byany force impressed db extra upon it; so nei-ther could it subsist in matter jointly withany quality, power, conatus, or tendencyto change its state. For first, supposing itpossible that two contrary tendencies could beplanted in matter; one, whereby it resisted achange of its state, in any possible direction *and another, whereby it tended to change it;this would be to no effect, nor to any otherpurpose than doing and undoing. These twocontrary conatus’s would destroy each other ifequal; or if unequal, the stronger would de-stroy the weaker, and the excess of it onlywould remain. So that the resistance to achange would either prevail, and then it wouldbe the fame thing as if no such contrary ten-dency had been planted in matter; or theconatus to a change of the present state wouldprevail, and then the remaining in any givenstate possible would itself be impossible ;which is a thought full of contradiction (f ).'

C 2 Thus

(f) This is very inconceivable, and really a self-de-structive