Herbert Butterfield on Aristotelian physics

“[T]he Aristotelian doctrine of inertia was a doctrine of rest—it was motion, not rest, that always required to be explained.”

“[T]he peculiar character of that Aristotelian universe... things... in motion had to be accompanied by a mover all of the time. A universe... [that] had the door half-way open for spirits...unseen hands had to be in constant operation... sublime Intelligences had to roll the planetary spheres... Alternatively, bodies had to be endowed with souls and aspirations... [M]atter itself seemed to possess mystical qualities.”