Chap. Vir. ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. 117 



fald above, that feparation is the firft acl of intelle5l^ without which 

 it could not have objeds Upon which to operate. 



There Is an ohfervation of Simphcius * upon the fubjeift of abilrac- 

 tion, which I think well worth taking notice of, as it fbiows, more 

 than any thing, that it is the Oi^eration of the highefl: faculty of our 

 mind. He fays, that t-hoie ideas of the qualities of bodies^ which w^e 

 abftradt from the bodies^ are correded and improved by the iniclk^^ 

 and made more perfect than they exift in the bodies. Thus, there is 

 not in nature a perfecS): circle, or a perfedt fphere, nor any other ma- 

 thematical figure, fo perfect as it is conceived by the mind. The fame, 

 I think, may be faid of m.oral qualities: For there is not exifting, 

 neither a perfect good man, fuch as we can conceive, nor, I believe, 

 a perfedl villain +, 



Thus, I have fhown, that there are in the human mind but two 

 gnoftic poiverSi viz. fenfe and intelkft ; — that the brutes have JcTife as 

 well as we ; — and that they preferve in their phantafia the perceptions 

 oi fenfe ^ as well as we do :— Further, that they compare together the 

 perceptions oi fenfe ^ and therefore, may be faid, in fome degree, to rea- 

 fon ; — That, as the objeds of intelleSl are quite different from the 

 objeds of fenfc^ fo the faculty itfelf is altogether different, and is the 



great' 



* In his commentary upon the 3d book dc y^nlmay fol. 65. 



t Here we may fee the origin of that ideal beauty, of which painters and ftatuaries 

 fpeak fo much, and which, they acknowledge, is the perfc£lion of their art : For, it is 

 no other than ideas of beauty, taken from forms adlually exiiting, but correclcd and 

 improved by the intellect ; fo that they become foniething tranfccncLiut^ and beyond 

 nature, though not unnatural, becaufe they are nature made more perfedl. And the 

 fame> I think, may be faid of all the works of art, in which there is nothing perfcdV, 

 but what is more beautiful than any thing to be fcen in nature: For, though the in- 

 dividual objects may be exa^lily copied from nature, yet, there muft be an arrange- 

 ment and difpofition given to them, fuch as is not to be found in nature, othcrwifc 

 the piece will not be fine, and, indeed, will not deferve the name of a piece of art, 

 from which it will be as different as a portrait is from a pidure. 



