54 A N T I E N T METAPHYSICS. Book II. 



given the antients the idea of this univerfal matter^ is the tranfmuta.- 

 tion of the elements into one another *. This made them fuppofe, 

 that there was one common fubjedl of all thefc changes, which received 

 the contrary qualities producing thefe changes. Plato, in the 

 Timaeus, page 1059. editio Ficini^ fpeaking of thefe changes, fays, 

 that the appearances of the elements are fo different, and the trans- 

 mutation of the one into the other fo quick, that we cannot, with cer- 

 tainty, fay, that any one of them is what we call it, ^r^, air, earth, or 

 ivater, but we ought to fay that it is like one of thefe ; and he ejQ- 

 plains the matter by a comparifon : For, fays he, fuppofe a m.an takes 

 a piece of gold, which he fadiions into various forms, fuch as tri- 

 anp'les, and other figures, if he fhows you one of thefe, and afks you 

 what it is ? the fafeft anfwer that you can make, is. That it is gold : 

 For, if you fay that it is a triangle, while you fpeak, the figure may 

 be changed. Of this kind, fays he, is matter. You cannot fay it is any 

 07ie thing, yet it is not nothing', for it is undoubtedly y/97«^//^/?i^, and 

 fo much fome thing, that without it nothing could exilf, at leaft of the 

 vihblc world : For it is that which receives all imprelTions; and, like 

 a piece of v^ax, takes off- ewevy/orm, but itfelf has none. There are, 

 therefore, continues our author, three things in nature, that which is 

 produced, that in which it is produced, and that from whence it is 

 produced, and v*'hofe likenefs it is; or, in other words, the pattern and 

 iirchetyfe. This he has copied, and indeed all the reft of the philo- 

 fophy of thiS: dialogue, from Timaeus the Locrian; who, in his trea- 

 tife of the foul of the ivorld, fays, that all things are three, viz. idea, 

 matter, and body, or what is fenfible, and produced of the two firft f ; 

 meaning by idea the pattern or archetype, [ov form, as ic is frequently ; 

 called, both by Plato and Timaeus) and which mixes with, and 

 moulds and. falhions the, matter in a manner wonderful and inexpref- 



fible. 



* See Ocellus Lucanus, page 513. — 518. in Gale's opufcula mythologica. 



+ Ta 2s I <itx«»T«, iSix^, v\-x,y, aurdnToi Ti,oicy ix.y»ji>t rcvTiti-j, Timaeus Locrin, page ic8p. 

 editio Ficiiii. Here we are to underftarul, that Timxus is fpeaking of the world as it 

 cxifls and is conftiruted, and of the matter of which it is- made, not of the great firft 

 cuufeof it, of which he fpeaks afterwards, as diftintt from all thefe three. 



