Chap. II. ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. 57 



CHAP. n. 



Defcription 6/ Form — Subftantlal Forms of the Peripatetics explained 



lorm not perceived by our Sen/es, nor even by the Intellecl^ otherzui/e than 

 by Analogy — That Analogy explained — Forms really exijling in Individu- 

 als^ hut not JeparatedfromMattcr ^except in the Mind of fome intelligent 

 Being — We have no clear Idea of cither the Matter or Form of natural 

 fuhjlances — All human Knoivledge oniy hy fimilitudes and refemblan- 

 ces — Privation not a feparate Principle of Nature, but included in 

 M^//^r— Matter and Form the Elements of Nature— joined ivith 

 Extenfton they form Body — vuith the addition of Figure, Body be- 

 comes not infinite — certain ^lalities bein^ further added., Matter 

 becomes the Elements — What thefe ^lalities are — A principle of Mo- 

 tion further necejfary to make a phyftcal Body. 



FORM is that of which jnatter is the receptacle ; and it is not on- 

 ly the outward fhape and figure of the thing, according to the 

 common acceptation of the word, but it is that which makes the thing 

 vuhat it is, and gives it not only its name and denomination, but its 

 nature : In ihort, u is the ejfence of the thing, from which refult not 

 only its figure and fhape, but all its other qualities. It is called by 

 Plato and the Pythagoreans, the idea of the thinj ; but it is not lucli 

 an idea as we have of any natural fubllancc, that is, an idea abfirac- 

 ted from matter, and containing only vifible and tangible qualities of 

 the lubjcdt, but an idea of a much higher order, luch as we muft fiip- 

 pofe ia the n.ind of the Deity, If we believe the univerfc to be the 

 production of w?W. It is dlilinguilhed by the Peripatetics from the 

 ideas that v/e form by abftradion, by the name of ^r^a t«» ;ro\AA/r that is, 

 ideas exifiing before the individuals in which they are incorporated, 



H and 



