102 ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. Bookll. 



petite, or by fome infl:in£tive paiHon, either for his offspring, or the 

 herd to which he belongs : And, the only ufe he makes of this com- 

 paraiive faculty, is for the prefervation of the individual, and the con- 

 tinuation of the fpecies. And, had mankind been intended for no 

 other purpofe, this kind of ratiocination would have been fufficient for 

 him. But man, by nature, was deftined for a nobler purpofe. He 

 is fet as a fpe£lator in this great theatre of the univerfe, where he is 

 to attend, not to the outward appearances of things only, and the ef- 

 feds they produce upon his fenfes, but to difcover their nature and 

 eflence ; — to admire the wonderful art and contrivance by which 

 they are put together, fo as to form one piece of amazing uniformity 

 and regularity, as well as variety; — to recognife his own and other 

 7?imdsy — and, by degrees, to rife to the contemplation of that Supreme 

 Mind, whofe infinite goodnefs, wifdom, and power, have produced 

 the wonderful fcene prefented to him. For this purpofe, it is necel- 

 fary that he fliould ad: from a nobler motive than the mere preferva- 

 tion of the individual, or propagation of the fpecies ; and that, not 

 contented with the perceptions of fenfe, he (hould form ideas of things, 

 by which only any knowledge is to be attained. Thefe ideas, as I 

 have faid, are the proper objeds of intelleSiy and the materials of all 

 our reafonings and opinions : So that, if the nature of them be well 

 explained, and the way in which they are formed, we fhall be able 

 pretty well to underftand the nature of this prime faculty of the hu- 

 man mindf which I call intellect. 



In order to explain the operations of intclleci^ by which only its na- 

 ture can be difcovered, it is proper to obferve, that, as all our know- 

 ledge, in this ftate of our exKlcnce, comes originally from our fenfes, 

 it is of abfolute neceflity that the firfi: operation of our minds ihould 

 be upon the objeds of fenfe : Thefe we compare together, as other 

 animals do; and from thefe comparifons we draw conclufions, and 

 form what may be called opinions^ concerning what is ufeful, or what 

 is hurtful, in the oeconomy of the animal life. This is the only 

 .yfe of the rational faculty which children among us have for feveral 



years 



