Chap. I. ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. 53 



Such ideas are what the fchoolmen call entia rationis ; and both thefe, 

 and their obje6ls have no exiftence except in the mind. If Mr Locke 

 •had made this diftimStion, he would not have fallen into fuch confu- 

 fion and contradiction concerning ideas, or ahjlracl ideas^ as he calls 

 them ; fometimcs fiippofing them to have a real exiftence, and fome- 

 times not. 



The next thing to be confidcred is, Whether the objedls of our 

 ideas, being fuch as have a real exiftence out of the mind, have alfo 

 a feparate exiftence, as we conceive them, or whether they do not 

 neceflarily exift in fomething elfe ? For, I fuppofe every philofopher 

 is fo much of a logician as to underftand this diftindion, with which 

 Ariftotle begins his logical work *, betwixt what exifts by itfelf, 

 and independent of other things; and what exifts in another thing, 

 without which it cannot exift; or, in other words, betwixt fubjlance 

 and accident. Now, the accidents of fubftances have no feparate ex- 

 iftence by themfelves; and, as they cannot exift without \.hc fubjiance, 

 neither can we conceive the matter of any fubftance exifting without 

 the accident : So that there is nothing which has a feparate exiftence 

 out ot the iiiind, except our ideas of natural fubftances, taken with 

 the matter in which they exift ; and, accordingly, in this way, as 

 Ariftotle has told us, all natural fubftances ought to be defined f. 

 Thefe diftindions, properly made, would have prevented a great deal 

 of confufton and contradidion, which our modern philofophers have 

 run into, concerning ideas. 



But, to return to matter^ which the reader will obferve I diftinguifli 

 from hody^ of which only 1 have treated in the preceeding part of 

 this work ; for body is matter fenfible\ that is, with thofe qualities 

 which make it perceptible by our fenfes. What appears to have 



given 



• See Ariftotlc's categories, cap. 2. ' 



t ii^riftotk's metaphylics, lib. 6. cap- i. 



