104 ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. Book TL 



fenfes, or the fame fenfe in a different way ; and we make it a fepa- 

 rate obj'"<5l of the contemplation of the mind ; and this abftra^lion, as 

 I have faid elfewhere *, is the firfl: operation of the human intelledt, 

 and peculiar to man . For the brute makes no fuch diftin£tion or fepa- 

 ration, and perceives the thing no otherways, than as it is prefented to 

 him by his lenfes, that is, with all its qualities taken together. This 

 quality, thus feledtd from the reft, we find likewife in other lub- 

 ftances ; and then we begin to generalize, which is the next 

 operation of the intellc£t after ahJliaciion\ and thus we form the 

 general notion or idea of this quality. In this manner, having 

 formed the idea of fcveral qualities, and finding thefe feveral qualities 

 united in one fubftance, we, from that union, charaderize that fub- 

 ftance ; and, finding the fame qualities united in other fubftances, we 

 again generalize, and form an idea of this fubltance f ; which idea is 

 no other than ihtjorm of the fubftance, as we conceive it. Rut it is 

 not, as I have elfewhere obferved, the real ejjential form of the thing, 

 but only a colledlion of fuch fenfible qualities of the thing, as we think 

 of the greateft: importance. 



From the account I have given of this procefs of the mind, it is e- 

 vident, that not only the comparative faculty is necelfary, but alfo the 

 fhantafia^ without which we could not generalize, unlefs we were to 

 carry the objeds always about with us, and fet the one befide the o- 

 ther. And here again we fee, that the intelledual faculty is intimate- 

 ly connected with the animal faculties ; and that it is no more, as I 

 have faid, than a fuperftrudure upon the animal foundation. 



Here we have found that objed of the intellect which I before 

 mentioned, and which is no other than the idea, or form, of any 

 thing, coUedted, as we have fceri, from many individuals. It is certain- 

 ly not an objcdl of fenfe, which perceives only the individual, but not 

 the general : Neither is it an objed of the pbantafta, in which, like- 

 wife' 



'* Origin and Progrefs of Language, vol. i. page 60, edit. 2. 

 t Ibidem, page 67. 



