Chap. IT. A N T I E N T METAPHYSICS. 



59 



Another example may be given, and which comes ftill nearer to 

 the cafe of animal and vegetable lubflances, and that is, from the 

 works o£ art, fuch as a clocks or any other machine. There the artill 

 muft neceffarily know the fubjlantial or ejjhntial form ; that is, thofe 

 parts of the machine which are principal, and produce all the move- 

 ments, — in fliort, make the thing what it is. That fuch 2l form does 

 really exill in the works of nature, as well as in thofe of art, is evi- 

 dent from this, that there could not be otherways any principle of 

 union in natural fubftances, but all their feveral qualities would be in- 

 dependent one of another. Now, we cannot fuppofe this imperfec- 

 tion in the works of God, or that any thing made by him is lefs per- 

 fect than the beings created by us, fuch as the works of human art, 

 and our ideas of mathematical figures, which we fee virtually com- 

 prehend all their properties, they being, from thofe ideas, all dedu^ 

 cible.- 



And, in thefe internal forms ^ we may obferve all the differences of 

 genus, fpecies, and individual, that we fee in the 'vifible Jorm ; Of ani- 

 mal, for example, there is one fortji, which we may call \.\\q generic 

 Jorm. Certain additions to ihxsform make the fpecijic form, or form of 

 each fpccies of animals ; and certain other additions conftitute the 

 forjn of the particular animal of any ipecies ; fo that, in every indivi- 

 dual animal, there really exift all the ihvtQ forms ; whereas \\\e generic 

 and fpecific forms, feparated and abftradled from the individual, exill 

 only in idea. . 



If the fame qucflion be aiked here that was afked before with re- 

 fped to matter. Whether fonn has any real exiftence feparated from 

 matter ? my anfwer is, That, according to the philofo()hy of the Licae- 

 tun, it has not ; and that, without matter, it is a mere idea, exifling only 

 in the mind of an intelligent being; but, according to the philofophy 

 of the Academy, it has a real exiftence feparated Irom matter, out of 

 the mind of any intelligent being. Of this, more afterwards. 



H 2 From 



