72 ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. Book II. 



Mind, or ^ux", in all animals and vegetables, which makes their 

 fi'Jof, or form, Arlftotle has told us *; and he fays alfo, that there is 

 fomething like it in all natural Bodies, unorganized as well as or- 

 ganized. 



And tliis fliows us of what rmportance it is in philofophy to efta- 

 blilh, as I have endeavoured to do, that there is a Mind, or Motive 

 principle, in all Bodies ; for, if fo, it is evident that, as Mind is 

 predominant in every thing, that Mind muft be principal in every 

 Body, and mull: conftitute its form and its ejfenccy from which all 

 its qualities are to be derived. Every thing here below, therefore, 

 is a fyflem ; for, as Nature itfelf is a great fyftem, fo every part o 

 it, animal, vegetable, or mineral, is a lefler fyftem ; and, if fo, it is 

 evident that, in every one of thefe leffer fyftems, as in the greater, 

 there muft be fomething principal and predominant, and, by confe- 

 quence, fome things fubordinate and dependent. And thefe are the 

 things which are apprehended by the Senfe ; whereas, what is prin- 

 cipal in the thing, and makes its nature and eflence, is apprehended 

 only by the Intelled:. 



That there is in every thing fomething principal, diftindt from its 

 material and fenfible qualities, and which makes the thing what it is, 

 and denominates it to be of fuch and fuch a fpecies of things, is evi- 

 dent from this, that the matter of every thing is continually chan- 

 ging. In animal or vegetable bodies, there is not one particle of 

 them that is not changed in a few years, and their fenfible qualities 

 alfo are very much altered ; and in mineral bodies alfo there are 

 continual changes going on, at leaft with refpedt to fize and figure : 



Yet 



• Lib. 2. De Anima, cap. i. where, in giving a definition of \|'t/;e'i> or Mind, af- 

 ter he has made a diftin£lion betwixt the vAij or matter, and the f*i>^(pri or «?«?, that 

 is, the form or idea, he adds, »v»yKtiity «j« Tr,ti ■^vj^i)' ovria* «»«<, «3{ hJoj fufunti ^vrt- 



