Chap. IV. ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. 339 



diftin(St from every other thing. It has, therefore, no adjundl or con- 

 comitant of any kind, not even place or pofition ; in which refpefl, as 

 Ariftotle has obferved, it is a fimpler idea than even a mathematical 

 point, which, though it have no parts, and be therefore indivifible as 

 well as the monad, cannot be conceived without pofition. 



Many of thefe monads, or o;;^j, confidered together by the mind, yet 

 fo as each is diftindt from the other, is what I call multitude. But, ia 

 order to make number, I think we mufl; add to Euclid's definition, and 

 fay that it is multitude defned or limited ; for, without fome limita- 

 tion, we do not, even in common fpeech, call it number: And brute 

 animals have the perception o^ multitude, and can diftinguifli betwixt 

 it and one ; but have not any perception of number. And there are 

 barbarous nations who have only the idea of number carried fo far : 

 (Monfieur la Condamine fays, that he met Vs^ith one upon the banks 

 of the river Amazons, that could count no farther than three :) And 

 farther, they have nothing but the confufed perception of multitude, 

 which they fignify by pointing to the hairs of their head. 



Plato has obferved, that we have the Idea of number from all the 

 fenfes. The reafon of which, he fays, is, that man was made for con- 

 templation and fcience : And, as the knowledge of number is the 

 foundation of all fcience ; therefore nature has made the perception of 

 it more general than any thing cKe, making it to arife from whate- 

 ver we fee, hear, touch, tafte, or fmell. But we are not from thence 

 to imagine, that number is a perception of fenfe, or, as Mr Locke 

 would call it, an idea offenfation ; for each fenfe only perceives its own 

 objeds ; and each aa of its perception is fingle and individual, ftand- 

 ing by itfelf, without any confideration of any other a£t of perceptioa 

 of the fame, or any other fenfe. It is, therefore, intellea only that 

 joins and puts together, as well as feparates, and recognizes both the 

 Qnc and the many, 



U u s Thefe 



