i^b AN TIE NT METAPHYSICS. Book 11. 



But what is nature ? I fay, it is nothing elfe but mind in body, and 

 operating by the means of body ; for I make this dillinOion of mind, 

 —I fay, that it exifts by itfelf, detached from all body, or, at leaft, ope- 

 rates by itfelf : or, otherways, it exifts in body, and never operates 

 but by means of body. Mind, exifting without body at all, and, by 

 confequence, operating without body, is the Supreme mittcfy or what- 

 ever other higher intelligences we may fuppofe fubordinate to that 

 w/W. Mimiy again, joined with boci/t but able to operate without the 

 afliftance of locfy, is fuch a ?rimd ^s the human. And, la/Iiy, mind in 

 body, and operating always in and through body, is what I call na- 

 ture. In this manner, I confider mind and nature as infeparably con- 

 neded ; and, if we feparate them, we muft introduce into nature, ei- 

 ther blind chance, or mere mechanifm ; that is, in other words, we"^ 

 mufl be Atheifts. 



The more various and complicated the movement is, the more un- 

 likely that it fliould proceed from any material caufe. Now, the 

 movements we have hitherto been (peaking of, are fnnple, compared 

 With that by which a vegetable body is nourifhed, grows, and propa- 

 gates its kind. And, accordingly, I do not know that any philofo- 

 pher hitherto has fo much as pretended to account for the growth, 

 nourilhment, and propagation of a vegetable, by caufes merely me- 

 chanical ; yet I do not think "ihat a vegetable life is generally ac- 

 knowledged by our modern philofophers, though it was fo by all the 

 antients, who were not Atheifts. 



As to the animal life, I think it is generally allowed by the philofo- 

 phers o{ Britain, to proceed from a principle immaterial. Thofe wha 

 would make a machine of the animal bociy, do not appear to me to 

 underftand thoroughly what is called a machine., or to diftinguifh 

 rightly betwixt a machine and its moving power. A machine or en- 

 gine is nothing elfe but A certain dijpqfttion or arrangement oj pieces 



of 



