Chap. XL ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. i6^ 



in the wall, in which was fixed a lens, that reprefented the images 

 of things without, upon the oppofite wall. And let us fuppofe farther, 

 that, like P ato's prifoners, he was {o chained, that he could not look 

 at objeils diredly through this glafs, but was only permitted to fee 

 them as refleded upon the wall : While he continued in this room, 

 he would naturally believe that there was no other way of perceiving 

 vifible objeds. But, let us fuppofe him taken out of the dark room, 

 and produced into broad day -light, how great would his furprife be, to 

 fee fo much greater variety of objeds, and fo much more diftindtly 

 too, and to handle and examine ti^em every way ? The fame we may 

 fuppofe our furprife will be, when we are freed from the cajnera objcu- 

 ra which we carry 3bout with us, and perceive things with fo much 

 more clearnefs and diftindlnefs than when \\q were in it. 



Thus, in imitation of Plato, I have endeavoured, by another fimili- 

 tude, to explain my notion of the powers of the mind, when delivered 

 from this dark prifon, in which it is at prefent confined. And I truft 

 that, from what 1 have faid in this and the preceeding chapters, I have 

 fhown clearly, that the mind has powers and faculties independent of 

 the body, and which probably will be exerted to much greater advan- 

 tage when it is difencumbered of the body : And this, I hope, will 

 have prepared the reader for what I am to undertake to prove, in the 

 fequel, that the mind is a fubftance altogether different from the body. 

 But, before I proceed to this, 1 think it proper to examine what the 

 antients have faid concerning the feveral parts of the iiiind. 



X 2 CHAP. 



