Chap. II. ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. 381 



In no other fenfe, but that, in this ftate of our exiftence, we have, 

 from our fenfes, the materials upon which intelled operates and forms 

 its ideas, they have, no doubt, exprefled it ill, and in fuch a wav, as 

 to lead Mr Locke into a capital error, fo that he does not appear to 

 have profited by the little learning he had ; we muft, therefore, if we 

 have a mind to be well inftruded in this philofophy, go, not to Ari- 

 ftotle's interpreters, the fchoolmen, who knew nothing of him except 

 by Latin verfions from the Arabic, but to Ariftotle himfelf, and his 

 Greek interpreters of the Alexandrian School, who not only had the 

 ufe of books that are now loft, but appear, to me, to have had pr^feVved 

 among them a traditional knowledge of his philofophy. From Ari- 

 ftotle, with the afliftance of thefe interpreters, I am now to deliver 

 what I think necelTary for explaining the nature of Science, and Cer- 

 tainty, and Evidence of every kind. 



Having premlfed thus much, I proceed, according to the diftlnc- 

 tion that I have made of propofitions into general and particular *, 

 beginning with general, by which we compare together generals or 

 ideas ; for, as 1 have elfewhere oblerved, all our knowledge, in this 

 ftate of our exiilence. Is compariJon\ for, by comparmg particular 

 things, we acquire ideas, by comparmg ideas we form propolitions> 

 and, by comparing propofitions, we reaion and lyllogize. 



As 



• This is a divlfion of propofitions made by Ariflotle, in the following words 

 which I quote the rather that they dtablilli, beyond all doubt, his belief in the dillinc- 

 tioii betwixt generals and particulars, a diflinrton that 1 hold to be the foundation of 

 all philofophy. Ejre* V m-n ra /Xiv, xzdoXou t<x> v^x/utcruv, rx ^i K.ceS' 'ikocs-tov >.%yu '^i 



K«6AA;«; ti ruv jsotfl' 'kuttoi etvxyKf, §"« XTTofxtUTB-xt Uf vttx. x,n ri n u,f„ on u.%v rain xxicXov nf, 



en h iuf Kx6 (kx't-to^ Ariit. Dc InterpfctatiOi.e. And he tuitiicr fays, that, with- 

 out generals, there can bf no demonltration. --nalytic. Po/ier lib. t.cap. i. ininitio. 

 bo that thofe who maint un that there are no generals, ciu cunicqueuily mainuin, that 

 there is no iuch thing as Uemoaftration. 



