21 8 0» the Vital Principle. 



treatife on this fubjed, ailedges that the Stoics 

 held the exiftence of a vital principle*. Arifto- 

 tle is reprefented, by fomef, as fo'liowing the 

 Platonic theory, becaufe he diftinguilhed the 

 mind into the intelle£ius agens et pattens i but he is 

 vindicated againft former aflertions of the fame 

 kind, by SennertusJ, who explains his meaning 

 to be, that the mind operates in two diftinct 

 ways, in confequence of being afFefled by two 

 diftindt clafles of perceptions ^ confequently, that 

 the diftindtion implies only a differentia in anima: 

 IntelleElum agent em et patientem mn realiter et ejfentia- 

 liteTy Jedratione tantum dijtingui. It appears, how- 

 ever, that mod of the Peripatetics underftood 

 Ariftotle's exprefTions in a fenfe favourable to the 

 plaftic nature. Phyficians had always admitted 

 the exiftence of the vital principle, under the 

 title of the calidum innatum\\. Some of the firft 

 reftorers of letters alfo, adopted this opinion, 

 with different modifications § ; and during a con- 

 fiderable part of the laft century, a regular fyftem 



* Nouv. Elem. de L'Homme. C. II. 

 f Cudworth, p. 165. & feq. 



X Sunt plurimi, qui intelleftum agentem, vel deum, vel 

 alium aliquem demonem feu intelligentiam, homini afliften- 

 tem flatuunt. Verum enimvero et ab Ariftotele et a veri- 

 tate horum opinio aliena videtur. Epit. Phyfic. p. 82. 



II Sennert. fub titulo. Barthez Nouv. Elem. chap. II. 



§ Vid. Brucker. Hift. Crit. Philof. T. V. p. 50, 136, 



943. 



prevailed. 



