Chap. X. ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. 145 



talned elfewhere, concerning the progrefs of the human mind, from a 

 flate no better than mere brutality, (however itrange it may appear in 

 modern times,) is the doctrine of all the great philofopners of .m i- 

 quity * : So that the only queftion is, Whether we do not, even at 



* There is a curious paflage in Philoponus's Commentary upon Ariftotle's treatlfc 

 De yinima, lib. 2. towards the beginning, where he gives an account of the progrefs of 

 man, from his conception to his maturity ; which is the more to be obferveci, that 

 PhiloponuE was not only one of the beft commentators upon Ariflotle, but a Chriflian. 

 Man, fays he, when fu ft conceived in the womb, is no animal at all, but tt^vx»i', or ina- 

 nimate ; then he becomes an ifi4'v'/-'^*j but only of the vegetable kind, that i^ to fay, 

 organized, and baring growth and nourifhment, but withoux fenfe or motion: Then 

 he becomes a Zoophile, having the fenfe of touch, and a certain movement, but with- 

 out change of place, fticking to the womb, like an oyfter to its fliell or rock. Then, 

 after delivery, he becom-^s a i^«o», or animal having motion from place to place, and 

 cn.rg'zing by all the fenfes. He is yet, however, but an irrational animal, or ^<!#»» 

 «>.«y«> ; and it is only in procefs of time, according to Philoponus, that he becomes |A'»r 

 >«V<*«». Nay, he is not, fays this author, even at his birth, an animal of a perfe£l: 

 kind; for he wants the (puvrxs-tx^ or imagination, and thereiore refembles a worm, or 

 fuch other incomplete animal. — That very young children want imagination, Philo- 

 ponus proves in this way ; A young child, fays he, wili fuck any thing that refembles 

 a p.ip, and he will come to the fire, and burn himfelf ; and this, not once, but fevcral 

 times Now, this proceeds from his not having thofe objetl.i piittured in his imagina- 

 tion at firft, as they arc aftcrw^^rds, when he knows the fire, and fhuns it ; and does not 

 miftake a finger, or any thing clfe, for his mother's pap. See Philoponus's Commen- 

 tary upon that part of Ariftotle's 3d book, De -'nima^ where he treats of iht phantafia. 



This is the fjatural progtefs of man ; but his civil progrefs, as it may he called, muft 

 be very much lunger; the one being the progrefs of the. body, which is mortal, and 

 butfhort lived ; the other, of the mindy which is immortal j the progrefs of the one, too 

 being from nature, the progrefs of the other depending upon culture and inftru£lioo. 

 Even when that is adhibited, the progrefs, wc fee, is but flow ; but, without that, when 

 men, inftead of being taught, muft invent every thing, how very much flower will it 

 be? 



To thefe reafons, and to this authority from Philoponus the Commentator of Ari- 

 ftotle, I will add the authoritv of Ariftotle liimfeif, who has ticne. fo far as to fay, that 

 vthe Nev,-, or intellect, till it has got inU'lUgiblcSt that is, ideas, in it, docs v.zt cxift except 



