Chap. IV. ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. 79 



fnateriai {uhd^nce, cannot be 7?iovedy except by accuknt \ as, when a 

 . man in a iliip is vioved, not by his mo'ving, but by the /5?7/>V W5v/«§- ; 

 Or, to give an example ftill more appofite, as, when rowers in a boat 

 are moved themfelvcs by the moinng of the boat-, for the mind moves 

 the body as the roivers do the ^o^^ and, by confequence, is moved itfelf. 

 But Philoponus, in his Commentary upon this chapter, Oiows, I think, 

 very plainly, that the difference betwixt the two philoibphers is, in 

 this inftance, as in many others, only in appearance ; and that Ari- 

 ftotle here has either milunderftood Plato, or affeded to milunder- 

 ftand him, which he fays is often the cafe, that he might have the 

 pleafure of refuting him * : For Plato does not mean here 7?iotion^ fuch 

 as that of body i but motio}i that is applicable to mi7id : For, according 

 to Arillotle's own definition of motion, he Ihows that mind is moved^ 

 when it is changed from one habit to another ; and, it may be added, 

 when it paflcs from a Hate of reft to adivity, or from one energy to 

 another t* 



But, even in this fenfe, I think his definition is not good ; for, in 

 \\\t frjl place, it comprehends only inferior 77iinds^ not the Supref7te 

 Mind^ in vuho7n there is no change^ 7ior Jloadovu of change, Scco7idiy, 

 Whatever may be the cafe of mind feparated from body, it may be 

 doubted whether the movements or changes that happen to niijid, while 



uni- 



* Philoponus, In thepaffage above quoted, is very angry with Ariftotle for rniftaking the 

 fymbols of the I'ythagoreans, uf.d by Piaio in the 1 imaeus, by which he makes the mind 

 to confill of right lines and circles, for literal truths The I'yth.igoreans, he lays, not wil- 

 ling to publifh their dodlrines to all the world, at the Lnwc time, net pleafed with the 

 allegories of the poets, which not only cover the truth, but arc apt to lea-I young minds 

 into great and mifchicvous errors, chofe oth.r kinds ot alhgones, wh-ch they called 

 fyvibolsy and by which they concealed their philolophy from tne vulg.ii, and, at the 

 fame time, did no harm to the ignorant. And, u) on this occaCon, Philoponus has 

 given us a very ingenious explanation of thofe iymboL, ufed by PJato to exprefs the 

 nature cf the mind. 



•]• See what I have further faid upon this fubjeft, in the chapter on motiony page 21. 



