12 8 ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. Book II. 



not only the philrifophers defire knowledge, but even the vulgar, 

 though they enjoy but little of the pleafure of it*. Nor is that to be 

 wondered <it ; for it is the plcaiure of intellet^, of which the vulgar 

 have but a fmall (hare. 



The oreciic poiver correfponding to the praSIicel iiitelleSij is the de- 

 fire of good \ under which I include ihc fair and the hand/oiue^ or the 

 rt y.uxty^ as ihc Grccks call it, which, by fome philofophers, was held 

 to be the only qood t : )^ or good ^ being, as i have already obferved, the 

 objed of this part of the human mind, it muft necelTarily be defired by 

 it : Whereas, as I have likewife obferved, the object of the purfuit of 

 the brute is the t« 'y,lv, or the pkqfant ; and that is fufficient for all 

 the purpofes of his nature, as fhali be afterwards fhown. 



In treating of the practical intelk^, Ariftotle takes occafion to in- 

 quire what it is that produces the progreffive motion in animals ? an 

 inquiry which, I think, might have been made more general, and 

 extended to the motion, even of fuch animals who do not change their 

 place altogether, but only in part. Upon this queftion, he befiows 

 two chapters, viz. the loth and nth of his third hook De Jnima ; 

 in the firft of which, he doubts, according to his manner, and, in the 

 fecond, decides. The refult of the whole is, that there are three things 

 which produce the animal motion ; Jir/ly the Nov?, or i?d£:Ikc7i under 



which 



* f^x*ixvi(V cu (^avoy rs(j tpiXora^tii rX<!-ro¥ ciXXa xxt T«<? uXXoii cfioia;' aXX' itti Z^xjcv 



xo(vc,nvo-i» 'avrov. Lib. De Poetica, cap. 4. See ^\(o Metaphyf. lib. i. cap. i. 



t The philofophers I mean are the Stoics. Ariftotle wrote a book cti»« rov uyxiov 

 x,^, Tcv >cuXov, which he fomewhcre quotes. This book is unfortunately loft, as well 

 as many works of his : But he has, in his books of Rhetoric, lib i. c.ip. 9. in initio, 

 given us two definitions of the t. x.xXci. The one is ^v ^Z uvr^ «<g£T6» c», i3r«*»»T<,y »,. 

 And the other is «» «y«tio» «v, ^Iv »,, It« ccyxlo,. This laft definition 1 like beft; for I 

 hold the fair, or the handfome, to be that which, being good, that is, ferving fome ufe- 

 ful purpofe of nature, is, at the fame time, pleafant to us, becaufe it is good; for. if any 

 thing be defired, merely becaufe it hpkafant, and not becaufe it is good, it is the t« 

 vt^Vf and not the t* r.tiXty, 



