:^24 A N T I E N T M E T A P H Y S I C S. Book II. 



common obfervation and experience, as much as if a man (hould main- 

 tain, that a {lone did not fall to the gn>und ; or, he muit fay, tha^ an 

 end n ay he propofed, and the bell means contrived for accompliih- 

 ing that end, withont intelligence ; which is an abfolute contradiction ; 

 for iiitelhgence in adion is nothing elie but propofing ends, and devi- 

 ling means. 



It is moO truly faid in Scripture, that man Is made after the image 



of God, by which we are to underftand the Joul or inielledual part of 



man ; for. to fay that he refembles the Divinity in his fenfitive or 



animal nature, would be highly profane and impious. But, by his 



intelled, he comes nearer to the Divinity than any thing we know ; 



and, therefore, as I have clfewhere faid, it is only by the ftudy of our 



own minds that we can come to know any thing of the Divinity, or 



of any Superior Mind : So that the precept of Antient Wiidom, 



•which diredts us to know ourfelves, is not only an admirable moral 



precept of fovereign ufe in the condud of life, but it is the foundation 



of the higheft philofophy, and particularly that part of it which is 



.called theology. 



« 



This prime faculty of man's nature is not beftowed upon him at 

 once ; but, like almoft every other thing belonging to him, is acqui- 

 red by flow degrees, and, like other things in nature, has a regular 

 progrefs. In this ftate of our exigence, it is neceffarily conneded 

 with the fenfitive part of our nature, in fo far as it is the fenfes which 

 roufe it, as it were, to adion, and furnifh it the materials upon which 

 to ad. Of thele materials it forms ideas in the manner I have defcri- 

 bed ; which ideas are the proper objed of intelle^ : For, as particu- 

 lars are the objed of ihe/enjes, fo generals are the objed of intelle^i* 

 The next operation of the intelled is, to compare thefe ideas thus form- 

 ed, and to dilcover their agreement or difagreement : And this is the 

 dijcurjus mentis, or reafonivg, as it is commonly called. The third 



great 



