Chap.r. ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. 65 



importance in philofophy ; I mean the diftindion betwixt God and 

 Nature. This is not made, or, at Icafl:, not properly made, bv any- 

 modern philofopher I know, though there is nothing we value our- 

 felves more upon than our knowledge of natural philofopl.y ; yet it 

 is difficult to conceive how a man can be called a natural philofopher^ 

 who cannot fo much as defme the fubje£l of his faience, nor tell us in 

 what refpedl it differs from the fubjed of theology. This diilindion 

 I have alfo endeavoured to explain in the preceding Volume *, and 

 fhall fay fomething more of it in this : In the mean time, I will en- 

 deavour to explain, accurately and fcientifically, the difference be- 

 twixt Man and Brute, 



What makes it difficult to draw the line exadly betwixt thefe 

 two, is the progrefs, that we obferve in Nature, from inferior to 

 higher Beings by degrees not eafily to be feen and apprehended by 

 fuch intelligence as ours : For in this chain of Nature, which, as 

 Homer tells us, reaches from heaven to earth, there is not any the 

 fmalleft link wanting ; and every thing holds of every thing, without 

 the leafl: gap or interval betwixt. In this progrefs of Beings Nature 

 afcends from unorganized Body, to Body leaft of all organized, I 

 mean the plant ; or, in other words, fhe proceeds from the mere 

 Elementary Life to the Vegetable. From thence if fhe had pro- 

 ceeded diredly to the Intellectual Mind, there would have been a 

 prodigious gap : But this (he has filled up with the Animal, fo won- 

 derfully framed, that it would feem that nothing more could be 

 made of mere Matter. Her next flep, therefore, was neceffarily to 

 the Intelledual Being : And, accordingly, as fhe had before joined 

 the Senfitive Life to the Vegetable, now fhe joins the Intelleftual to 

 the Senfitive, by fuperadding Intelledt to Scnfation ; and fhe has 

 joined thefe three together fo wonderfully, that all operate together 

 in the fame Man, with a mutual connexion and dependence upon 

 one another. And thus Man, being both an animal and an intelledual 



Vol. II. I creature, 



* p. 217. 218. 223. 



