132 ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. Book 11. 



conneded and interwoven with the animal, that it is a matter of nice 

 difcrimination to feparate them. Iknovv that, in fiich cafes, fuperfi- 

 cial inquirers fatisfy themfelves, by obferving, that, in nature, things 

 are blended together, and run into one another infenfibly, like dif- 

 ferent fhades of the fame colour ; fo that it is impolfible to fay where 

 the one begins, or the other ends. But I hold that, in nature, the fpe- 

 ciefes of things are abfolutely diftind ; and if, at any time, they are 

 mixed, ihe produdion is unnatural, and does not go farther than the 

 individual monfter ; (for fo I call every production out of the com- 

 mon courfe of nature;) and, if it were otherwife, there would be no 

 beauty, order, or regularity, in nature; but every thing would be 

 mixed with every thing, according to the notion of Anaxagoras : 

 And, however fair the outward appearance of this world may be, fo 

 as to deferve the name given it in Greek, xsc-^o?, yet it would, in rea- 

 lity, be no better than the original chaos of the poets. I hold, there- 

 fore, that, if the human mind be truly of a kind different from the 

 brute, there are certain fixed limits and boundaries which feparate 

 them; however difficult it may be for us to find them out. 



In order to make this difcovery, the readied way will, I think, be 

 to ftate the comparifon betwixt the two minds ; and to oblerve, frjiy 

 in what they agree; and this will make the things, in which they dif- 

 fer, more obiervable. 



In the firfi: place, I ihlnk it is impoffible to maintain, that the minds 

 of ijuorms^jiies^ or of thofe animals of fo low a kind, as to be fomething 

 betwixt animal and vegetable, and which, therefore, are called 

 Zoophitcs, are of the fame kind with our minds, even in poivcr or ca- 

 pacity : For, as nature does nothing in vain, according to that excel- 

 lent maxim of Ariilotle *, it is impoffible to fuppofe, that fhe would 



be 



* Ar\(\.ot]c De Jfiimaj lib. 3. cap 10. His words zre, ftKrt fi/t^iv n (Pvs-ig -anu juxTtiVy 

 fcnn «jroAMaf« t«» «ivuyKciiM*j 1 hat nature does nothing fuperjiuous or nnnecejfary ; 



nor 



