148 ANTTENT METAPHYSICS. Bookll. 



learn any thing ; by which he means, are taught any thing by others : 

 And it is certainly true that, without the ufe of fpeech, it is impoflible 

 that man could have improved his mind fo much ; not fo much, 1 be- 

 lieve, as to have beconie an intelledual creature. Now, we cannot 

 fuppole that nature W'juld have adled fo vainly and fuperfluoufly, as to 

 have beftovved on any animal a power or faculty, without giving him, 

 at the fame time, what was neceflary for exerting that power. 



In this manner, I thinki have proved, — That man Is an animal fuperior 

 to any other upon this earth in poiversind capacity^ as well as in energy 

 or atluality — That, in this laft refpedt, and, as he actually exifts, thofc 

 faculties which he has in common with the brute, fuch as the phan- 

 tafia, and the reafoning or comparative faculty, he pofleiles in a fupe- 

 rior degree — That he has one faculty which the brute has not in the 

 leaft degree, and which is very much more excellent than any that is 

 bellowed upon the brute, viz. the intellect, which is felt-moved, not by 

 any thing from without — which operates by itfelf, without the afli- 

 ftance of the body — whofe objects are things within the Mind of eter- 

 nal and unchangeable exiftence, not things in generation and corrup- 

 tion — and, laftly, which can make itfelf its own objed ; and, by re- 

 cognizing itfelf, can rife to the contemplation of fuperior minds, and 

 even of the Supreme Mind. This is that fpark of divinity within us, 

 whi.jh, properly roufed and flirred, foftered, and nouriflied, by fuitable 

 culture, will bring us as near co the Divinity as it is poflible for any 

 mind, clothed with body, to come. 



CHAP. 



