J98 ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. Book IT. 



As to the animal, there is more doubt ; becaufe the animal 

 nature appears not to be fo entirely joined with jfhitter, but they 

 may be conceived to be leparate ; for the animal has magina' 

 tion or phantafia, which, as it operates without the fenfes, as well 

 as the N«vs or hitelkS}, Ariftotle calls n<,«? -Tixh-nKo^., or paffive in- 

 tellcSi ; giving it the name of inlelk5l^ becaufe it hath within itfelf 

 the fubjecl of its knowledge ; but adding the epithet of paffivCy be- 

 caufe it is, by the impreffions, and, as it were, the fignatures of 

 ienlible objects made upon it, that it knows things, as his commen- 

 tator Philoponus has obferved *'. And the animals of the better fort, 

 as we have feen, compare their perceptions and reafon in a certain de- 

 gree, which is an operation altogether diftind from body. On the 

 other hand, it may b^ faid, that all the operations of the mind of the 

 animal relate only to body, and to external things, which are necefla- 

 ry, either for the iupp')rt of the individual, or the propagation of the 

 kind. Thefe argu »ents, on b »t!i fides, have induced fome of Ari- 

 ftotle's commentators, particularly Philoponus, his Chriftian commen- 

 tator t» to divide the matter, and to admit, that the mind of the ani- 

 mal may exift without the body which at prefent it inhabits ; but that 

 it muft neceffarily have foi.e clothmg or covering of body, but body 

 jTiuch more fubtile, and of a finer texture than the bodies of animals 

 upon this earth, and which, therefore, they call difpiritual body J. 



As what energizes only in conjun<flion with matter, cannot exift 

 without matter, fo, according to Arillotle's rule, what energizes by it- 

 felf, and without matter, mult, by its nature, be capable of a feparate 

 exigence, though, for the time, it be united with w<3//^r. And, in- 

 deed, while it a6ts and energizes by itfeif, it may be confidered as ex- 

 illing by itfelf; becaufe every thing thai atts does fo tar turth exift. 



Belidcs 



• Phlloponus's Introduftion to his Commentary on Ariflotle's books De Anima. 



f Fhilopoiius, ui»i iupra, 



1 ?r»»w^Ti*o» <r»^«. bee i^hiloponus, in the paflagc above quoted* 



