Chap. V. ANTIENTMETAPHYSICS. 85 



animal life^ producing ftlll greater variety of motion ; for It has fen- 

 fation fuperaddcd to the vegetable hre, by which the animal per- 

 cei'ves^ and has communication with objects external. And, laft of all, 

 comes ifitel/ecf-i which is eiientially diiHnguiihed from the other three, 

 hy cofifciGu/nefs ; for none of the other three knows what it does ; 

 whereas intelle£t recognifes itlelt, as well as other natures *. 



It may he thought that I degrade wzW very much, when I bring it fo 

 low as to make it move even unorganized bodies : But, in doing fo, I 

 think I only fill up the fcale of nature. That fcale certainly would not be 

 compleat, if there was no 7nind below the human, as well as above it. 

 Now, there is belov7 it that of the brute, having many things in 

 common with the human, as we (hall afterwards fee, particularly rati- 

 ocination. In a certain degree : But, would the progrels of nature 

 downward be compleat, if there were no mind below that of the ani- 

 mal ? I think it certainly would not ; and therefore there is the 've- 

 getable life. But ftill there is fomething even below that ; for there is 

 movement in unorganized hodxQs^ which cannot be accounted for from 

 any mechanical caufe. The progrefs, therefore, cannot end in the 'ue- 

 getahki and m.ufl: go further down to every body that is moved^ but 

 further it cannot go. 



Nor is the lowed kind o? life ufelefs, however contemptible It may 

 appear, compared with higher mind \ but, on the contrary, by it, un- 

 der the dire<^lion of intellect is carried on the whole bufinefs of the 

 univerfe ; for it is by the various motions of bodies, to or from one 

 another, commonly known by the namQ ot attrac:iion and re-pulfion — by 

 their motion downwards, or tendency to a centre, called, in the lan- 

 guage of modern philoibohy, g>avitation,'-^by their motion up- 

 ward, or from the centre, fuch as the motion of flame, — ui;u i>y 



tiicii- 

 * The three fiift of thcfc minds make wh-.it is ca'letl, in ihe Language of anticut 

 philofophy, nature, in contiMiliflintfUon to man Ami the ilifierencc betwixt thcia .uid 

 man is, that they a6l neceflarily, without cicliberation, not knowing for what purpofc 

 they acl, nor recognizing their own opt ratdi.o j whercis 7nan ad^s with Jelibcidtion, 

 without neceffity, knov;in^ for what puipofe he a<^s, and confcious of his own ac- 

 tions. — But of this more aiLcrwards. 



