if ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. Book L 



namely, That all is Mind, and that the material world has no exig- 

 ence ; or that all is Body. 



'C' s , „ , 



If the fn-ft of thcfe opinions be the truth, we mult renounce the 



evidence of fenic, believe its perceptions to be all delufion, and that 

 our whole life is nothing but a dream. An opinion, fo contrary to 

 common ki\{e, and the feelings and experience of every one, has 

 had very few patrons in anticnt or modern times ; nor do I believe 

 that it was ever really believed by any, the maintainers of it being 

 generally fceptics, who, from a vain oftentation of the fuperiority of 

 their parts, difputed againft every thing that was held to be moft 

 certain, in order to fubvert the principles of all fcience and certain- 

 ty, with which, as will appear in the fequel, the evidence of fenfe is 

 intimately conneded. 



The latter opinion has been maintained by many philofophers, 

 antient and modern, and particularly by our Scotch philofopher, Mr 

 David Hume. I was in hopes that it might be buried in his grave, not- 

 wiihftanding his endeavours to make it furvive him, by the valuable 

 legacy, as he no doubt thought it, of his pofthumous works, 

 left to the public, but which have not been received with the ap- 

 probation he expeded, nor added at all to his reputation as an author, 

 which he vainly iraagined was to increafe after his death. But it is re- 

 vived. by a living author of fome reputation, Dr Priellley, fo far, at 

 leafl, as concerns our vucrocofm. This author has maintained, 

 with a boldnefs which is really aftonifhing, and very mu<;h exceeds 

 that of any freethinker of this or former times, ' That man is 

 ' but one fubflance, viz. Body — that we have no foul, that our 

 ' thoughts, fentlments, refolutions, and adlions, are nothing but mere 

 * matter and mechanifm, refulting from a certain organization and 

 ' arrangement of the parts of our body, which being diflblved 

 *" by death, there is an end of all our thoughts and intelligence, and 



♦the 



