Chap. I. ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. 3 



* the whole man, Body and Mind, is buried in the fame grave, to be 



* reftored again,' as he fays, ' at the great day, when all the fevera! 



* particles, which compofe this body of ours, fhall be put together a- 



* gain, organized, and arranged, in the fame manner, fo as again to 

 ' produce thought and intelligence.' 



This is the fubftance of the opinion of our Chrirtian materiallft, a 

 defignation that he has given himfelf, but which has hitherto been 

 unknown in the learned world. Of this opinion I fhall fay no more 

 at prefent, but that, if I really believed, as Dr Prieftley feems to do, 

 that, in this little world of mine within my clothes, there was no 

 thought or intelligence but what was produced by Matter and Me- 

 chanifm, in fliort, that I was no better than a clock or a watch, 

 which being taken down, or the pieces of which it is compofed dif- 

 arranged, there is an end of all its motion, I fhould alfo believe that 

 there was but one fubftance in the w^hole univerfe, and that all the 

 intelligence which appears ia it is nothing elfe but various modi- 

 fications of matter. 



I would not, however, be underftood to fay, that Dr Prieftley is 

 of this opinion, as he profefles not only to believe in God, but to 

 be a Chriftian, and even a reformer of the Chriftian fyftem, which 

 he fays he has difcharged of many enormous errors *, one of which 

 he reckons the diftin£tion, that hitherto has been made by all 

 Chriftians, betwixt foul and body ; and from what I have heard of the 

 man, (for I know him not perfonally), I have no reafon to doubt of 

 his fincerity. But I think it is unlucky that he fhould hold the 

 fame opinion concerning Man that Mr Hume maintains, and, be- 

 fore him, Mr Hobbes f . He has written a great deal upon various 



A 2 fubjeds, 



* See his correfpondence with Dr Price, p. 60. 



t Leviathan, cap. 34 and 38, Vindication of Leviathan, p. 90 and qi. where Mr 



HobbM 



