ejfential to Matter, &c. 73

earth so massy and large (which is a disposi-tion the Atheist finds fault with, as shall beshewn afterwards) that there might be no sen-sible proportion between it, and those crea-tures that were thus to move upon it; that itmight not give way instead of resisting andre-acting, when herds , armies and elephantswant a firm obstacle to push them forward intheir progressive motion! If a living creaturewere to move on a mass of matter nearly ofits own bulk, there would be a mutual yieldingand rolling between them ; although theywere impelled to each other by a constant gra-vitation. And this would be always inconve-nient, as song as there were any sensible pro-portion between the animal and the fuftenta-cle , But as it is, though our earth is pen-dulous in the midst of heaven, our action isexerted on it as against a firm bafis t becauseof its bulk and massiness.

XXVI. To return then to where we leftoff in N° 21, viz. to (hew that matter as a so-lid substance must necessarily resist all changeof its state of rest or motion; it follows fromthe argument there mentioned, if it did notthus resist, that then two contradictory pro-positions would both be true. For the least2 atom