346 ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. Book III. 



oijir/l caufes and principles ; for thefe are e'rher what is altogether 

 imn aterlal, and not exifting in matter, which, as I have faid, is the 

 proper fubjecfl of metaphy^.cs, or what, though material, and exilting 

 in matter, is farrheft removed from fenfe, and of hlghefl: abHradi in, 

 fuch as the Categories. And, accordingly, Ariftotle, in his books 

 of metaphyfics, has explained fome of th-^m at great length, which he 

 thought he had not fufEciently explained in bis books of categories. 

 And, indeed, the dodrine of the categories belongs fo much to the 

 Jirji philofophy, that a confiderable progrefs muft have been madr in 

 that philofophy before they could have been difcovered. Now a- the 

 firfl: philofophy was undoubtedly laft in the order ci invention, I am 

 perfuaded that every branch of philofophy had been cultivated, and 

 every particular fcience brought, at leaft, to fome degree of perfedion, 

 before men could have fuch inlarged views of things, as to arrange 

 and divide into certain clafTcs, that infinite variety of things which 

 compofe this univerfe. That Pythagoras, or his fchool, which laded 

 no longer than his life, fhouid have carried philofophy and fcience fo 

 far, cannot be fuppofed. I therefore have not the leall doubt but that 

 this philofopher brought the dodrine of the categories with him from 

 Egypt, and that it was there difcovered, in the colleges of the prieftSi 

 ^ho appear to me to have carried philofophy and fcience of all kinds 

 much farther than ever they have been carried fince. 



In the next book, I proceed to inquire concerning thofe adjunds or 

 concomitants of Nature, time^fpace^ and place, Thefe make the third 

 head, under which I propofed to confider the univerfity of things. 

 And I will begin with time, 



BOOK 



