47G> A N T I E N T METAPHYSICS. Book V. 



ion of fleOi and blood, fo we fliall have then, hkewife, after we 

 are releafed from it, by fome other method of coQimunication 

 with the great fource of all ideas, Viz. Nature, and its Divine Au- 

 thor *. 



From this account of ideas, it is evident in what fenfe generals may 

 be faid to be, or not to be, befides particulars, which I find, from a 

 paifage of Ariftotle f, was a puzzle in antient times. Co: fidered, as 

 Plato confiders them, they are beings having a lubftance, and exift- 

 ing feparately, not only from the corporeal things which ^-articipate of 

 them, but from the mind which conceives them. On ihe other hand, 

 according to Ariftotle, confidered as fubftances, tliiV have no being at 

 all, heftdts particulars. But, confidered as in the ' . d of the Supr'^ne 

 Caufe, thty have an exiftence, and an exiilence more real than particu- 

 lars, becaufe they are eternal and unchangeable, as Ariftotle has faid, 

 whereas particulars are corruptible and perilhing %, 



Neither 



• The (Hfl:in£lion that I have made here betwixt thofe ideas which are incorrup' 

 tible, and thofe which art corruptible^ will, I think, be fufficient to aiiiwcr the puzzle 

 that Philoponus makes upon this luhjetl, in his commentary upon the hrft book of the 

 laji JnatyticSy fol. 6i. where he endeavours to fet Ariftotle at Viiian.e with himfelf, 

 becaufe that he fays in one place, {Laft y^nalyticsy lib. i. cap 24 ) that generals are in- 

 corruptible^ hux. \)7iVX.\cvi\MS corruptible ; whereas, in the beginning of his work wi^i 

 v^X"** ^^'^ ^^yS' ^^^^ generals are either nothing at all, or pofterior to particulars. But 

 this contradiction is only in appearance ; lor, in the firft paflage, he is fpeaking only of 

 the firft order of ideas, thofe in the Divine Mind, which are undoubtedly incorrup- 

 tible ; whereas, thofe exilhng in matter, are as certainly corruptible. But, in the 

 book ^i§( ■4't/%»j, he is fpeaking of the ideas of the human mind, which, as they are 

 formed from particular things, are undoubtedly, in order, pofterior to them. And, as 

 to the doubt that he ftates oi ideas having any exiftence at all, it muft be underftood 

 of fuch an exiftence as Plato gives them. 



t ylnalytic. Pojlericr. lib. I. cap. 24. 



\ Ariftotle, ibid. His words are, E« ^iv «») m A»yos s/y, xki ^n of^uw^Kc r» xxieXov., «»» «» 

 «v5'i» r!rT6» (»(*(> rui Kctra ^i^e( «(AA«««r^^9kO' *ff^ Tti afim^Tdy tt \KHftif ta-rr ruhxttro. 



JlAfU, fitl^TCC flH^^tf. 



