S8 ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. Book II. 



dlflin^^uifh what is proper for nouriflnng them, from what is not. 

 Ti is the) do hy the iBCaiis of what we cdiW fenjat ion ; for which 

 nature has provided five /en/es^ and no more to any aiiimai, 

 judging ihele fufficient tor the purpofe hoth of /i'uiiig, and of 

 H'ui7ig ivell. But, as Ihe docs ncnhing in vain, to (ome (he has 

 given fewer, their (kite of life requiring no more ; but to all ihe 

 has given one, viz. touch : For that is the -fenfe which is the founda- 

 tion of all the oUierb, every one ot tiicm operating by the touch ; and 

 therefore, without that fenfe, there could be no fcniitive nature. Sen- 

 fation, therefore, may be defined, ' the perception, by the minJ, of ex- 

 ' tcrnal objedls, by the means of certain parts of the lod^i called the 

 * organs of Jenje.^ 



Further, all animals propagate their kind. And this,- fays Arif- 

 totle, Is the chief concern of nature ; for the intention of nature is to 

 make every thing eternal, like Its great Author, as far as their nature 

 will permit *. Of fome kinds of being, the Individuals are eternal; 

 bur, as all cannot be fo, there are others which are eternal only by 

 fucceflion ; fo that the fpecics always continues, and is one and the 

 fame, though the individuals perifh f. And by how much the fpe- 

 cies is of more value than the individual, fo much the more care has 

 nature taken to provide for the prefervatlon of the fpecies. And, ac- 

 cording to Ariftotlc, It is for the fake of the fpecies that fhe has pro- 

 vided for the Individual J: Now, it is by generation that the fpecies 

 is continued. 



But the care of nature for the prefervatlon of the fpecies, as well 

 as of the Individual, would be ineffedual, if there were not certain /;«- 



pu/fis 



• Ariflotle de Jnimay cap. 4. lib. 2. 

 t Ariflot. ibid. 



i Ar\{\ot\ey ulfi fu^ra. Sec alfo Philoponus in ,his introdu(ftion to his commentary 

 on thefc books. 



