Ideas of matter and force introduced

205. In the preceding chapter we considered as a subject of pure geometry the motion of points, lines, surfaces, and volumes, whether taking place with or without change of dimensions and form; and the results we there arrived at are of course altogether independent of the idea of matter, and of the forces which matter exerts. We have heretofore assumed the existence merely of motion, distortion, etc.; we now come to the consideration, not of how we might consider such motions, etc., to be produced, but of the actual causes which in the material world do produce them. The axioms of the present chapter must therefore be considered to be due to actual experience, in the shape either of observation or experiment. How this experience is to be obtained will form the subject of a subsequent chapter.

206. We cannot do better, at all events in commencing, than follow Newton somewhat closely. Indeed the introduction to the Principia contains in a most lucid form the general foundations of Dynamics. The Definitiones and Axiomata sive Leges Motûs, there laid down, require only a few amplifications and additional illustrations, suggested by subsequent developments, to suit them to the present state of science, and to make a much better introduction to dynamics than we find in even some of the best modern treatises.