Matter can suffer no change but change of place.
Weight is an accident of matter, the effect of motion: all effect consists in motion; there is no result until effect has ended in rest.
Rest being natural to inert matter, is no effect, has no cause.
There is no power but impulsive pressure; nor is there any effect whatever attributable to inertia.
The fundamental principle of inertia is that only from which the philosophy of nature is deducible: all philosophy is false which is not consistent throughout with this universal, all-directing principle.
Note.—The terms electric and elementary are of the same signification, which is, highly rare: quality and power to act are wholly out of the question with the inert atoms of the elements of bodies and matter.
MOTION.
Motion admits of no definition, from being but a local casuality of transitory endurance; motion is the same in all things, from an atom to a planet, against which all difference in velocity and direction makes no exception.