rj4 AN TIE NT METAPHYSICS. Book II. 



iftence ; and they will tell you, that, without organs of fenfe, we can 

 have no perception of" any kind ; and, I doubt not, but that ihey 

 would fay the fame of Superior Intelligences, even of the Supreme ; 

 for, if they believe in a God at all, they muft have the fame grofs 

 conception of him that Epicurus had, who could not conceive that 

 God could fee without eyes, hear without ears, and, in fhort, had any 

 underftanding at all without the ufe of fenfes *. But, I maintain, that, 

 in a feparate flate, even the human mind will perceive, not only in- 

 teliedual, but fenfible objeds, without the ufe of the fenfes : And I 

 think, that there is not only reafon and philofophy to convince a man 

 of this, who believes in the exiftence of any thing befides matter, 

 but alfo fads, fufficient, at leaft, to convince me, that, even in this 

 flate, the mind has this power of perception. 



In ihtfrjl place, by the means of the phantafta^^ we perceive fen- 

 fible objcdts in this way, and that too in the mofl; lively manner. 

 How nature has contrived this, whether by the means of any 

 thing material, upon which the objeds are painted, as upon a 

 canvas, or, in whatever other way it is done, I believe, it is impof- 

 fible for us to difcover: But it evidently fh.ows that the mind, and not 

 only the intelkduaU but the animal mind, has, by its nature, a power 

 of perceiving fenfible objects without the alTiftance of the organs of 

 fenfe, and vv'hen the objeds are at a great diftance, and far out of tiie 

 reach of thofe organs. 



But, 2r/o, This power of the mind is ftill more manifeft in the cafe of 

 our drcam.s. What the caufe is of this wonderful phacnomenon of our na- 

 ture, not the leib wonderful in the eye of the philofopherfor being com- 

 mon, I do not prx)|)ofe i^re accurately to inquire : I will only fay, 

 tliat I do not think the caufe can be what Ariiloile has aiTigned for it, 



namely, 



** See Cudvrorth's intellectual ryn.jm, book !■ chap. I. page ^o. 



