i6 ANTIENT METAPEIYSICS. Book I. 



tion, or the accompliihment of an end *. This word has been much 

 ridiculed as a mere found without any meaning,. invented by Ariftotle 

 to cover his ignorance, and impofe upon mankind; whereas, it is a 

 word denoting that which is mod perfed in natural produdions, to 

 which nature always tends, and which, for that reafon, is to be con- 

 fidered by every philofopher as principal in nature. 



There is alfo in the works of art a perftdion which the artift aims 

 at, and, which when attained, the work is faid. to be compleated, or 

 in a ftate of perfedion ; and, in general, every volition of an intelli- 

 gent agent propofes fome end, which being attained, the adion is 

 compleat. 



But, in both nature and art, and the adions of intelligent agents, 

 there is a progrefs, and, by confequence, a change from one thing to a- 

 nother; and this change is motion'. And we have new feen to ivhat 

 this change is; for, in the progrefs both of nature and art, it is to 

 the end propofed, that is, the entelecheia^ or ftate of perfedion of the 

 thing. 



Further, as there is a ftate of perfedion in all the works of nature 

 and art, fo there is alfo a decay, and at laft a diflblution and extindion 

 of all the works of art, and of thofe too of nature, at leaft in this 

 fublunary world. For, as animals and vegetables, and other natural 

 produdions, come to a ftate of maturity, fo they decline from that 



ftate 



• The word is derivtil from anXtt tx^^ ; and it is likely that Ariftotle has taken It, 

 with lome variation, from the books of thePythagoreans, in one of which, yet prefer- 

 ved to un, viz. Ocellus Lucanus ^rip* rev jt^vto;, the word c-f>TjA«(« is ufed in the fame 

 fenfe : For, fpeaking of thtjirji mattcryht fays, '^vyay.ei ovi Trc-ivrx i> tovtui Trfurm yivy^riu^, 

 c-u»T£/«« ^» yiyof^iix, xtti xx^ovrx (pvcrn. Gale's opufcula mycholog'ca, page 517. where we 

 have tumfcii and a-wnxeixj oppofed in the fame manner as in Ariftotl? ^wcij^ii and £»re- 

 xix.fiin are j and from this, and feveral other pr.flages that might be quoted, both from 

 this author, and from Timaus the Locrian, it appears, that Plato and Ariltotle have 

 not only taken the matter of their natural philofophy from the Pythagoreans, but 

 a great part of the language of it. 



