rp ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. BooklL 



Althnugb we cannot trace the progrefs of every fenfation in the 

 fame nr.anntrr as we do that of fight, yet we are fure that, all of them 

 affed: the mind in the manner above mentioned, by motion from the 

 objed. commuiicajed to the mind through the rne.ilum r.f the organ. 

 Now, it IS evident, that, by this motion^ or a^lion oi the obj.d: up- 

 on the organ, we can never dilcover the nature or i flence of (he 

 ol'jeci:: r*nd, accordingly, it is agreed among philofiphers, that, by 

 fe.'ft: merely, we do not know the nature of any thing. It remains, 

 therefore, only to cop.lider what tntelUti can do in the matter. Now, 

 it appears to me, that all that this prime faculty of the mind can do, 

 is to c.jlled: together the different ways in which any natural fubftance 

 moves our organs ot fenfe, that is, all its fenfible qualities, and to make 

 thefe, or the ■irincipal of them, the definition of fuch fubftances *. But it 

 is evident, that this definition, inftead of giving us the nature and (.'flence 

 of the thing, gives us no more than fome of its operations upon our or- 

 gans of perception. Thefe operations we colledl and arrange, afcribing 

 each to the objed that produces it, and, in this way, difcriminating 

 the feveral things around us : But what the internal conftitution of 

 thofe things is which makes them proper to produce fuch impreflions 

 upon us, or what their nature is, otKerwife than in relation to us, and 

 fo far as they operate upon us, we know not. 



On the other hnnd, we muft fuppofe that fuperior intelligences are 

 converfant with the inin(.^fl: effences of things, and perceive the inter- 

 nal coi.ftitution of every thing, from which are derived all its proper- 

 ties, and all its operations upon us and other objeds. For this pur- 

 pofe, it is evident, that they mull have faculties which we not only 



have 



* This is the account which Ariftotle giv-s of our knowledge of the «w5-*a, or ef- 



fcnce of anv thinir, t?rE<S"«» -/<*? !;^s*««'' «stoo«§«v«4< y.xrix, t;)v CPx^tctix'' tts^i tsdv s-v,t4«s£»«eT«y, 



») Till trX*T»/>,7) T«V T^itlTTWl', To 6 KXl TTi^t T^J OVTlXi i^OftlH Xl /«»/£(» «T< ^dhlTTlt. DCC What 



I have further laid vpon this fubjeft above, page 56. 



