ruly (for
aught we know) be termed "impulse," or "protrusion," as "attraction."
Again, the parts of steel we see cohere firmly together, and this also is
accounted for by attraction; but, in this as in the other instances, I do
not perceive that anything is signified besides the effect itself; for as
to the manner of the action whereby it is produced, or the cause which
produces it, these are not so much as aimed at.

104. Indeed, if we take a view of the several phenomena, and compare them
together, we may observe some likeness and conformity between them. For
example, in the falling of a stone to the ground, in the rising of the
sea towards the moon, in cohesion, crystallization, etc, there is
something alike, namely, an union or mutual approach of bodies. So that
any one of these or the like phenomena may not seem strange or surprising
to a man who has nicely observed and compared the effects of nature. For
that only is thought so which is uncommon, or a thing by itself, and out
of the ordinary course of our observation. That bodies should tend
towards the centre of the earth is not thought strange, because it is
what we perceive every moment of our lives. But, that they should have a
like gravitation towards the centre of the moon may seem odd and
unaccountable to most men, because it is discerned only in the tides. But
a philosopher, whose thoughts take in a larger compass of nature, having
observed a certain similitude of appearances, as well in the heavens as
the earth, that argue innumerable bodies to have a mutual tendency
towards each other, which he denotes by the general name "attraction,"
whatever can be reduced to that he thinks justly accounted for. Thus he
explains the tides by the attraction of the terraqueous globe towards the
moon, which to him does not appear odd or anomalous, but only a
particular example of a general rule or law of nature.

105. If therefore we consider the difference there is betwixt natural
philosophers and other men, with regard to their knowledge of the
phenomena, we shall find it consists not in an exacter knowledge of the
efficient cause that produces them--for that can be no other than the
will of a spirit--but only in a greater largeness of comprehension,
whereby analogies, harmonies, and agreements are discovered in the works
of nature, and the particular effects explained, that is, reduced to
general rules, see sect. 62, which rules, grounded on the analogy and
uniformne