134 ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. Book II. 



In this inquiry I will follow the divifion, above mentioned, of the 

 animal mind into gnofl'ic and oret}ic<i beginning with the gnojlic^ which, 

 as 1 have faid, is the foundation of the other. 



The^?/o,'?/V faculties are the a(ftive powers of the mincU by which 

 it perceives different objeds : By one kind of them, the mind per- 

 ceives external objeds through the medium of the organs of fenfe. 

 Thefe the better fort of brutes have, as well as we, as many in num- 

 ber, but different in degree ; for every animal has organs of fenfe 

 fuited to the life for which it is, by nature, deftined : Nor do I be- 

 lieve there is any one fpecies of animals that has fenfations of pre- 

 cilely the fame degree of acutenefs and intenfenefs that another has. 

 Arillotle has obferved, ihat the fenie of fmell is imperfed in us '^', 

 whereas, in fo:iie other animals, it is moft acute, fo that by it they 

 perform a great part of their animal fundions. The fenfe o^ Jight^ 

 on the other hand, 1 am perfudded, is more perfed in us than in 

 mod other animals : For it is by it, as Arillotle has obferved, that 

 we acquire the moft knowledge "f ; and, I think, there can be no doubt 

 that we are by nature dellined for acquiring knowledge, of which, 

 as the fame philolopher has oblerved, all men are more or lets de- 

 firous J. I believe too, that our fenfes, both of tajle and of touchy 

 are more delicate and difcrim-nating, than the fame fenfes in moft 

 other animals § : And, perhaps, the fame is true alfo of our hearing ; 

 at leart, it is certain, that, by cultivaiion, we have given it a power of 

 difcriminatiiig founds, which no other animal has. 



The 



* De ^nima, lib. 2. cap. 9. 



t Aletaj-hj/. in initio, where Ariftotle fpcaks of our jiatural ways of acquiring 

 knowledge. What we acquire by hearing ox difcourfc, \v: cunliders as artificially ac- 

 quired-, for, wnatcver doubts others may have Ahonx. J pcech being an invemion oi urt, 

 Ariftotle had none : And, accordingly, he makes words to be lignihcant cnJy by com- 

 patt. — See his book of Interpretation. 

 •^ Ibidem — Poetic c.ip 4 



§ Ariftotle (lib. 2. de Animas cap. y.) fays, that we hate the moft exquifite touch of 

 cny animaL 



