22 ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. Book I. 



genus to wliich it belongs. Now Ariflotle tells us, in the beginning 

 of his third book of metaphyfics, that Quantity is that which is di- 

 vifible into parts, eacli of which is o«<f, and fomething by itfelf ; and 

 he divides it into quantity dilcrete, and quantity continuous. The 

 former of thefe has its parts feparated and disjoined one from ano- 

 ther, and is what we call Multitude^ or, if limited and defined, 

 Number ; the latter is that which has its parts contiguous, and joined 

 together by one common boundary. Now, is it poffible that any 

 man, who had read this chapter of Ai-iftotle, could have maintained 

 that the Deity, or even the human Mind, was quantity divifible into 

 parts, each of which was one thing, and which parts lay together 

 contiguous, and having one common boundary ? 



This fo grofs error of Dr Clarke fhows us, that a very pious man 

 may unwittingly maintain opinions that lead to very impious con- 

 fequences. The Doctor is a man to whom I think both natural and 

 revealed religion owe a great deal j and yet his opinion of an ex- 

 tended Spirit, and a Deity that has length, breadth, and thicknefs, is 

 as abfurd and as impious a dodtrine as can well be imagined. But 

 this error of the Doctor's, and, I have the charity to believe, the er- 

 rors alfo of Dr Prieftley, and, in general, of all our modern meta- 

 phyficians, proceed from their pretending to fpeculate upon thefe very 

 abftrufe fubjeds, without the afliilance of the antients, who ought 

 to be our guides in all philofophy, and particularly in \htjirji and 

 higheji. 



It is, however, true, that our Minds muft fXA^ fotneivherey as the 

 Divine Mind exifts everywhere ; but it does not from thence fol- 

 low, that they mufl exift in the fame manner that Body does, that 

 is, with the three dimenfions ; but, on the contrary, as Mind is a 

 fubftance of a nature quite different from Body, it follows of necef- 

 fary confequence that it raufl exift in a manner altogether different. 



This 



