Chap. IV. AN T I E N T M E T A P H Y S I C S. 



a9 



Thefe, and many other fuch words, ufed, not only in metaphyfics; 

 but in other fciences, Ariftotle has explained very diligently in his 

 fifth book of metaphyfics, diftinguiQ-iing all the different fignifica- 

 tions in which they are uled, birt afcertaining'one princij)al to which 

 all the red refer. It is, I believe, the bed metaphyfical vocabulary 

 extant, and will be' very much efteemed by thofe who know how 

 much accurate fpeaking contributes to juft thinking : For, though 

 the diftindions there made may leem trllimg and frivolous, or, per- 

 haps, not intelligible to thofe who have not learned to know the 

 difference betwixt rowwoMj^w/f and philojophy^ they. will, to the learn- 

 ed, appear ufcful in all reafoning, and efpecially upon matters of ab- 

 ftrufe fcience, but of abfolute neceffity in refuting captions and fo- 

 phifms, which, without thofe diftindions, cannot be anfwered. 



CHAP. 



accident, which may at firft fight appear a little extraordinary. He fays, that a phy- 

 fidian does not cure a man except by accident^ but Calias or Socrates^ or any other 

 who happens to be a man. But, is there wo general oi which curing can be properly 

 predicated? There is; and Arillotle has exprefled it by the Greek word SifXTnv- 

 T»v, which we may tranllate curabie. Milton, who was learned in 'the philofophy, as 

 well as the language of the Greeks, has ufed the expreflTion by accident in this phiio- 

 fophical fenfe. For, in the argument to the Sampfon Agoniftcs^ he fays, ' That 

 ' Sampfon, when he pulled down the houfe, killed the lords of the Philiflines, and 

 « himfelf ^_y .7fai^/z/ i' which, at firlt fight, niufl appear very lira nge, as the killin;^ 

 cf himfelf was as neceffary as the killing thofe lords. But the meaning is, the killin? 

 thofe lords was the intention of Sampfon, not the killing himfelf; which, though it ne- 

 ceffariiy happened along with the other, yvzsbefide his intention. The killing, there- 

 fore, the lordsi was y.x6' kwo with refptd to his intention: But the killing of himfelf 

 was-x<»T« cvfcZtirix.oiy or by accident. In this fenfe, it is, that, as I before obferved, our 

 mind is faitl to be moved when our body is moved; for that is not, nor can be xx6' ecvro, 

 as the mind, not having parts, is incapable of motion from place to place: It is there- 

 fore x«ct« (rvftSfSuK«?, that is, not by its own nature, but by t/te accident oi its being 

 joined with the body. In this way, alfo, a man is moved by the motion of a boat, in 

 which he is, with this diflerence only, that the man in the boat may be moved i^xi' Uvro, 

 though he is at that time moved y.xrx c-vft^tt>;y.c; ^ whereas, the mind cannot at any time ' 

 be moved Kxf Uvrc. 



