136 ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. Book IL 



Further, we have a fet of perceptions quite difFerent from the per- 

 ceptions of the brute, becaufe t]>e objeds of them are quite different. 

 And, as Ariftotle has well obferved f, where the objeds of percep- 

 tion are difFerent in kind, the faculty of perception mull: be alfo d-if- 

 ferent. The objects 1 mean are ideas^ or gem-rais. Thele are intirely 

 difFerent from particular objeds of fenfc, which only are perceived by 

 the brute, and are things that have a real exigence in nature ; whereas 

 ideas are mere creatures of the mind'. So that here the human mind 

 exerts a creative power, which, to the philofopher, mull appear lome- 

 thing very wonderful ; fo wonderful, that we might be thought our- 

 felves a vifionary being, without any thing real or fubllantial in us, 

 it we did not confider, that it is in this way we difcover the forms 

 and elFences of thmgs, as far as it is poflible for the human faculties 

 to difcover them, in the (late they are in here below, overlaid and 

 buried in matter, out of which we are obliged, as it were, to dig 

 them. 



Laft of all, and what, more than any thing I have hitherto faid, 

 makes it evident that our mind is of a nature quite difFerent from 

 that of the brute, is the power which it has, oi turning upon itielf, 

 making itfelf its own objed, ana thereby difcovering its own na- 

 ture :J: ; and, by analogy, the nature, likewife, of fuperior minds. 

 Now, whatever degrees of fenfe, or even ot realon, we may allow to 

 thofe fuperior brutes 1 mentioned, this faculty no body will pretend 



that 



t Lib- 6. cap. 6. ethic. 



X See Philoponus upon this fubjed, in his introdudlon to lils commentary upon 

 Ariftotle's books de Anima\ his words are, I think, remarkable; and, as the book is in 

 the hands of very few, I will here tranfcribe them. — 'OvS's* tw* a-v/^ctTui 'eivro ixvr« 



•yiyyuTK^y o«^£ 5rges ixvre tTriTrei^lTxt. iv y«g oion itcvr/tv yi^ei^,» ixXa ri ruv cvuxruf.* ciXh^ avV 

 iei iiXtyot^vtayuHg, y.xi ret uiru.uoirot Ivcui, ixuTeig i<rx7iv. ov yx^ iio'tv '«yTijv '» avj/fs, 4 h xKcifiy J) 

 «3-Awj »; ««!-^>i «•/?.« vat ^»)T« 7r«<«5 £tt« i^ytrs*;. uX\' c Xt>yo<; ifTt, o TTi^t xvtm ^>jT*y, /V ftiVToi ■^vx.l 

 >) XeytKYi, «i/T» 'ixvTr,t y«yvAi(rx«. xvTri yovt io-Ttv ij l^^nrevtrx, uvrn h ^nTovfitiyi, tcuTr^ 7i':v fi^KCVFX, 

 jtvTii n 'ivjxcrxeftevj) )j yivve-Kovcx KXi yivaQ'-cui^n- uQaiftxToi xfx ivx^ytii tczitoiOHKrxi. 



