Chap. X. ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. 469 



a thing, clear and dIfl:in<St, feparate from all other ideas, and without 

 any thing material ftlcking to it ; and that, in exerciling this higheft 

 faculty of the mind, we are much obftru£led by the animal part of 

 our nature, 1 mean, by the fenfes and imagination. But that we have 

 the faculty, if not from nature, at leafl from ufe and experience, and 

 that it may be greatly improved in the fame way in which it is ac- 

 quired, are fads that I hold to be uncontravertible. 



In treating this argument, I have proceeded in a way that may be 

 thought unnatural and prepofterous ; for I have argued from art to 

 nature, that is, from the efFed to the caufe, {all art being derived from 

 nature), inftead of arguing from nature to art, that is, from the caufe 

 to the effe«5t. But this would have been fuppofing, what my adver- 

 farics in this argument are not willing to grant, that there is a Being, 

 the author of this univerfe, in whofe mind there are the ideas of every 

 thing here exifting, I have, therefore, chofen rather to argue from 

 the works of art, concerning the exiftence of which there can be no 

 difpute ; and to fliow that, if we have ideas of thofe works, we muft, 

 for the fame reafon, have ideas of the works of nature. 



From the account here given of ideas, it is evident that the nrft or- 

 der of them muft be eternal and unchangeable, like the Being in whofe 

 intellect they refide ; and thefe may be underftood to be what are 

 called, in the language of Scripture, the incorruptible things of God. 

 The fecond order, Vv'hich exifts in the niany^ that is, in material things, 

 muft of neceffity, like them, be corruptible and perifhing ; but, like 

 them, they are conftantly renewed, fo that there is no blank or gap in 

 nature. And, as to the ideas in our minds, as they are, in this ftate of 

 our exiftence, acquired, fo they are alfo loft by oblivion, and many 

 other caufes. But. thofe who believe our minds to be eternal, and of 

 divine original, will likewife believe, that neither is there here any 

 gap in nature ; but that, as we had ideas before we came into this pri- 



fon 



