Chap. XIII. ANTIENTMETAPHYSICS. 169 



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CHAP. XIII. 



The Antient Philofophers made the DijltnSlion betwixt Body and Mindy 

 and bclie'ved that both exifled — Some of them believed that Mind 

 ivas corporeal^ and that every Thing elfe ivas fo — This the Foun- 

 dation of Atheifm — The Belief in incorporeal Subjlances the Founda^ 

 tion of Theijm- -Different Manners in ivhich Things exifl — Incorpo^ 

 real Snbjlance exifts in the mofl perfefl Manner — Obje^ion to the 

 Exiftence of Immaterial Subflances^ that they cannot be conceived-—^ 

 Anjiver to this ObjeSiion tnvofold — Firft, That they can be conceived 

 —Secondly, If they could 710 1, no Reafon from thence to conclude 

 that they did not exifl. 



ALL the antient philofophers, whofe opinions Plato and Ariftotlc 

 have mentioned conceriiing body and mind^ agreed in the diftinc- 

 tion that I make betwixt the two, and appear to have had no doubt 

 of the exiftence of both ; for, though Democritus, and after him Epi- 

 curus, denied that there was a governing mind in the univerfe, yet 

 neither of them doubted of the exiftence of the human mind^ or that 

 there was thought and reajon^ ivijdom and counfcU in our little bodies, 

 though none any where elfe. But the great point in difpuce among 

 the philofophers of thofe days was, What was the nature of mind ? 

 Whether it was a fubftance different from bodyy or whether it w^as 

 not body^ but more fubtile, and of a finer texture than ordinary body ? 

 All the Atheiftical philofophers of antiquity maintained, that there 

 was nothing exiHing but/r^, air^ earth, and irater ; and that, of one 

 or other of thefe, or all together, varioudy modified, mind was made. 

 The Theifts, on the other hand, maintained, that inind was of a nature 



Y and 



