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PHYSICAL ASTRONOMY. 311
moves. Matter is external existence; it has powers of
motion, but it only brings them into play under certain
spacial conditions and external : oppositions the soul alone
is an ever active and internal thing, and only those bodies
which have souls find within themselves inducement to
move, and move of their own free will, independently of
outer mechanical circumstances."
Now here however I must say, as Abelard once did : si
omnespatres sic, at egonon sic : for, in opposition to this prin
ciple, however great may be its antiquity and universality,
my doctrine maintains, that there are not two origins of
movement differing fundamentally from one another ;
that
movement does not proceed either from inside, when it is
ascribed to the will, or from outside, when it is brought
about by causes but that both ;
things are inseparable and
take place simultaneously with every movement made by
a body. For movement which is admitted to arise from
the will, always presupposes a cause also: this cause, in
beings that have knowledge, is a motive ; but without it,
even in these beings, movement is impossible. On the
other hand, the movement of a body which is admitted to
have been brought about by an outward cause, is never
theless in itself a manifestation of the will of that body
which has only been evoked by that cause. Accordingly
there is only one, uniform, universal and exceptionless
principle of all movement, whose inner condition is will
and whose outer occasion is cause, which latter may also
take the form of a stimulus or of a motive, according to
the nature of the thing moved.
All that is known to us of things in a merely empi
rical or a posteriori way, is in itself will ; whereas, so far
as they can be determined a priori, things belong ex
clusively to representation, to mere phenomenon. Natural
phenomena therefore become proportionately less easy to
comprehend, the more distinctly the will manifests itself