Chap.II. ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. 9 



of them, than thofe by which they are perfe^ly diftingulfhed the 

 one from the other, and, at the fame time, their nccelLiry connexion 

 with one another exprelfed *. 



Vol. IL B There 



* That the Peripatetics were much puzzled to give a definition of Mind, which ap' 

 plied to all the feveral kinds of Mind, is evident from what Alexander Aphrodifienfu, 

 theoldeft commentator upon Ariftotlewehave, fays, in a treatifehe wrote, a-iji '^'•jxm- 

 The paflage is in the firft book of this ireatife, in the chapterentitieJ, '•r< \'jx. ctTUpxi 

 tti Tn; 4-1/^/1)5 ivmftHi. There he fays, That the kinds of Mind are fo difTerenr, fome 

 lower, fome higher, fome fiift, fome laft, that it is very difficult to give a definition 

 that will apply to them all; for, fays he, what will apply to the bweft, or the 

 ^rjl Mind, as he calls the vegetable, (being the foundation of all the other Mind* 

 that are incorporated with Body), will not apply to the /aji, or moft perfccH:, viz. 

 the Intelle, .ual Mind. And Ariftotle himfelf, in the beginning of his fecond 

 book a-sjt 4"'X'>^y where he gives a general definition of il^u^j^, introduces it in a 

 way which fliows that he had fome difficulty to find any thing that was common to 

 all Minds ; for, fays he, lih n )t.j»o», j'a-< ^tca-r.s ^vf^nf In Afy«». Then he gives the 

 definition, which is, 'o vfutn {trtxt^ux vufi»TK ^urixn, i^yanKH ; "Thefirfl pcrfeSlion of' 

 organized body : meaning, by ihcfrfiperfe^ion, that perfeftion which confifts Jw- 

 itcftft, not In^yua \ that is, in iht power, not in the aHion, or operation, refulting from 

 that power ; And fo far the definition, as I have obferved above, is proper : And 

 it is alfo proper, in another refpeft, that it applies to the Mind of every organized 

 Body ; for, certainly, the Mind is fo much the perfedion of fuch a Body, that we 

 cannot conceive an organized Body to exift without Mind. And it agrees with my 

 definition in this refpeft, thatfuch a Body muft neceflarilybemovtd by fome internal 

 principle, and in fuch a manner as is fuitable to its nature. But my obje£lion to it iy 

 1/?, That it is too general, and therefore obfcure ; and, 2diy, That it is not compre- 

 henfive enough, as it does not take in the Mind which moves unorganized Body : 

 For this laft, an apology may be made in behalf of Ariftotle, that this treatife of his 

 is entirely confined to the vegetable and the animal Mind, and to the intelledlual 

 confidered as united with Body ; fo that he does not fpeak at all here of the ^v^n, 

 or MiTTEj ^J't/;!;!), which is in all natural Bodies, but of which he had fpoken in the 

 preceding books, • De Phyfica Aufcultatione;' fo that it appeared to him unnecef- 

 fary to fay any thing more of it in this treatife vi^i 4"Kii- And, indeed, the Greek 

 word ^vxn, neither in common ufe, nor in the language even of philofophy, has a 

 fignification fo comprchenfive as to take in this kind of MinJ. And, accordingly, 



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