PREFACE. xi 



plained fo clearly the namrc, and diftinguifhed fo accurately 

 the feveral fpeciefes of it, that what I fhall fay in the after 

 Parts of this Work, will appear no more than Corollaries, or 

 Confequences of the Principles here laid down. 



I cannot conclude this Preface, without acknowledging my 

 obligations to thofe who have aiTifted me in this Work : That 

 I fhould need afTillance in a Work of fuch variety and ex- 

 tent, which takes in the Intelledtual, the Animal, and Vege- 

 table Life, and even the moving principle in bodies, faid to be 

 inanimate (though there be nothing in nature, that is not in- 

 formed by Mind of one kind or another), the Reader will 

 eafily conceive. My firft Thanks are due to Dr. Horfely, with- 

 out whofe encouragement I fhould not, as I have faid elfe- 

 where*, written a fccond Volume of Metaphyfics. I have 

 been particularly obliged to him for his affillance in what I 

 havewritten upon Sir Ifaac Newton's Aftronomy; and, indeed, 

 without the help of fuch a man as the Do(5tor, who is not 

 only a Geometer and Aftronomer, but a Scholar and Philo- 

 fopher, I fliould never have been able to have adjufted my 

 Philofophy of mind to the Principles of that Aftronomy. 



My next thanks are due to Mr. Stuart, ProfefTor of Ma- 

 thematics in the Univerfity of Edinburgh, and moft eminent 

 in that profeffion, who has helped me likewife where I was 

 moft deficient, I mean in the Mathematical Part. But that I 

 may not father my errors (if they be errors) upon others, I 

 think it is a piece of juftice I owe Mr. Stuart, to let the Pub- 



* Page 357. 



b lie 



