ii. Force
“Imagined” is inserted, throughout these Definitions, as a reminder that the existence of all these objects of definition, however real, is suggested to us by the Imagination.
Force is that which is imagined to immediately produce, or tend to produce, motion.
Why “immediately”? Because a particle of “matter”—attracting, as it does, every other particle of “matter”—may be said to “tend to produce motion.” Yet “matter” is not said to be force, but to “exert” force. “Matter” is imagined to attract “matter” through the medium of force, or “mediately.” But force is imagined to act “immediately.” Hence the insertion of the word.