10 ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. Book. I. 



and, as there can be no motion without a moving power, which I call 

 m:nd^ there cannot, confequently, be any body without mind. 



To thcfe definitions I have j^iven of body and inind^ it may be ob- 

 jected, that they only contain a property of each ; for it rtill remains 

 to be inquired, What body is, v>rhich is thus moved F What mi?id is, 

 which thus moves ? 



But to this I anfwer, that it mufl: always be remembered, that meta- 

 phylics is tlic fcience of things, not of ide^s. Now, with refpcdl to 

 our ideas, which are the creatures ot our own minds, being formed by 

 that operation of the mind called ahjlraciion, we can give proper de- 

 finitions, explaining the very cffence of the thing ; and of this kind 

 are the definitions in .nathematics. But, of the works of God, we 

 know not the effenceor conftituent principles ; we therefore cannot de- 

 fine any natural fubfiance, otherways than by mentioning fome diftin- 

 guifliing quality or qualities, common to every individual of the kind. 

 Thus, in defining an animal, vegetable, or mineral, we can do nothing 

 more than fpecify certain principal qualities of it ; but what is the ef- 

 fence of it, and that conflituent principle from which all thefe quali- 

 ties refult, is beyond the power of the human mind, in its prefent flate, 

 to difcover *. 



Now, thefe definitions of body and mind exprefs that quality of each 

 which is moft confpicuous, both to fenfe and reaion ; for it is that qua- 

 lity of each by which the whole bufineis of nature is carried on, above^ 



below, 



* See what I have fu: *.er faid upon this fubjc£l» Vol. I. of the Origin of Language, 

 p 139. in tlie nete, ftcoT)* edition- 



Sir liaac Ncw'on, in the Schclium Gcneralc, at the end of his Pnncipin, f.ys, 

 that we have no iinowletige of the eflence or iutimate nature of any fubfi^ance, not 

 even corporeal fubflances. * Quid fit rei alicuju. inbftantia minimc cognofclmus. 

 — Intimas (corporuin) fubftantias nullo f-nfu, null, adlione reflexa, cogncfc!inu.s, et 

 multo iT.inus ideaVn habemus fubitantias \)l\ — Hunc cognofcin-'us foiummodo pe/ pro- 

 piietateb iuuS ct atinbuta,' Sec. And in ihac way oniy we kj,ow his v\-oiics. 



