Chap. XX. ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. 293 



rvx,-Ay and the other «t;T.ft«ro» *. But both, he fays, are fortuitous and 

 fecondary, or an appendix to intention or Nature. 



Thus, I Gondude my invefllgation of this fubjed, which was not 

 underftood before Ariftotle wrote, nor, 1 beheve, by any body fmce 

 his time, vv'ho has not read him. And, from this inveftigaiion, it ap- 

 pears, that * Chance is a rare event, produced by the concourfe of two 

 ' caufes, both from Nature ; or both from the intention of man ; or 

 ' one from each ; but the concourfe of the two caufes not nece/Tary, 



* or in the ordinary courfe of things, and the event produced befulct 



* the deftination of Nature^ or intention of illvw.' 



Thus, I think, I have clearly made out, that chance is not a mere 

 phantom or creature of our imagination, but that it has a real exift- 

 ence in nature, as real as mind, to which it is an appendix. And the 

 confequence of this dodtrine is what Ariftotle has faid, that, even if we 

 (hould allow chance to have produced this univerfe, it neceffarily fup- 

 pofes intelligence and Nature pre-exiftent t« Philofophers, there- 

 fore, of modern times, who exclude mind from the fyftem of Nature,- 

 fpeak mofi: abfurdly, and without knowing what they fay, when they 

 fpeak of chance making a world, and carrying it on ; for, infiead of 

 chance^ if they underftood their own fyftem, they would fay that it 

 was material necejfity that firft produced, and ftill preferves the world ; 

 or, in other words, that there are certain powers in matter, by which 

 it ads Vi^ithout mind or intelligence^ or any end propojed^ and confe- 

 quently neceffarily ; which powers, operating in this way, have not 

 only produced this wonderful frame of the univerfe, but fuftain and 

 preferve it J How they account for blind ncceftity producing i'uch 



, won- 



* Ibid, in fine 

 t Arift. lib. 2. cap 6. 



:j: This is the fyftem of Epicurus and his followers, to whom the abfurdity of ma-- 

 king Chance produce every thing, when, at the fume time, they exciuded mind and 



intel- 



