On the principle of vitality. A discourse delivered in the First Church in Boston, Tuesday, June 8th, 1790. Before the Humane Society of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts / By B. Waterhouse, M.D.

  • Benjamin Waterhouse
Date:
1790
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the principle of vitality. A discourse delivered in the First Church in Boston, Tuesday, June 8th, 1790. Before the Humane Society of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts / By B. Waterhouse, M.D. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    things change, and that nothing is truly loft; that the fum total of matter in the Umverfe remains perfectly the fame ; and as it was the work of Omnipotence to create fomething out of nothing, the fame Omnipotence is required to reduce any thing back to nothing.1f it is apparent that there is an univer- fal change, or mutation of all things into all, then muft there be fome one primary matter, common to ail things out of which they were made——They went ftill further, and enquired into the moving principle, the efficient caufe, that is to fay, that caufe, which aftbciates the elements of natural fubftances, and which employs them when aflociated, according to their various and peculiar characters J This moving principle they called the Anima Mundi, the Soul of the World. Thales, one of the feven wife men of Greece, maintained* that Water was the fubtile principle that moved all things* Ee concluded fo, from obfciving that matter was chiefly dealt out in moifture ; that the feeds of plants fo long as they are in a growing ftate, are moift ; and that a vegerabie will grow to a confidtrable flze from water alone ; that the Earth is refrefhed, recruited and made fruitful by water —that the Air itfelf is but an expanfion, or expiration of water. He reminds us of the immenfe quantities in the fubterraneous' regions, whence fountains, and rivers, like fo many veins in the body, convey water over the furface, and through the bowels of our Globe, to vivify and fuiiain the whole. Her ACLITI& > \ See Bacon’s account of antient opinions, t See Harris philof. atrang.
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