Chap. X. ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. 141 



efTence Is energy. The meaning of which he afterwards explains, 

 by telling us, that it does not Ibmetimes think, and fometimes not, 

 but always t- And I have no doubt of the truth of what Phlloponus 

 fays in his -commentary upon the firfi: book De Amma^ ' That intel- 

 * lect,when feparated from body, has no need of the ^■.a.^oix, or difcourfe 

 ' of re af on ;' becaufe, without fcarching for truth, as It does now, and 

 paiTing from premifes toconcUifion, It fees, every thing immediately and 

 intuitively, having iht fonns of every thing within itfclf, and not being 

 difturbed In its operations by the body ; for, fays he, the body is the 

 caufe of its ignorance, and, therefore, of its fearch for knowledge. 

 And, in a following pafTage, he fays, that the mind, In that feparate 

 ftate, has no need of memory any more than of reafon. But, fays he, 

 in this flate, our knowledge is fleeting and tranfitory, like the body 

 to which we are joined : We therefore need memory^ In order to re- 

 tain what we have once learned ; for memory Is the know^ledge of 

 what we knew before : But, in our feparate ftate, v/e have \\\t forms 

 of all things, that fall within our comprehenfion, in the mind at once; 

 fo that there is neither firft nor laft in our knowledge *. 



And here we nuay fee the reafon why Arlftotle and his commenta- 

 tors afcribe only one operation to the vay?, or hitclle^^ viz. ftmplc 



ap- 



-|- KV.I ovroi vovi '^i>^is-ic; koci Uftt'//,i, xxi a^at^jjf, ti) cva-iu, uv Uipyna — «>iA' ov^ oti ^ei ten, 

 ere ti ev nti. Ibid, cap 6. 



• Philoponus's commentary upon the 5th chapter of the firfl book De ^nima, 

 where I think it appears from Ariftotle's own words, that Philoponus has very fair- 

 ly given us his fenfe ; for Ariftotle fays, t» h ^tutotto-S-ui kii ^tXHf, y, f-tia-nv, ovk i/ln 



tKfitev 'x-ee%, uXXu, rov^t rov f;jj«»T«j tKH¥Cy ^ ixnfo i^a. h« xxi rtvrtv ^6ei^»fnrcv, fJTt ^n)« 

 fi.c*lvii. cvrt ^iXit. ev yu^ iKHvev tjv, ciaXx rev Koivev^ uxcXuM^i' Ji t$v( la-ui Bii»rtf»f n 



xMi KTcu^H ta-Tiv. De Anima^ lib. i. cap. 5. A divine fentence, and which alone ought 

 to have acquitted Ariftotle of any fufpicion of Atheifm or Materialifm, if there had 

 been nothing more to the fame purpofc in l)is works. 



