Chap.II. ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. 73 



Yet all thofe fubftances contlhue ftill the fame. And not only docs 

 the fpecies ftill remain ; but even the individual, though every par- 

 ticle of it be changed, is ftill the fame. Nov\^, what is it that pre- 

 ferves this wonderful Identity, amid fuch variety oiciiaages ? It is, 

 Ifay,this internal principle, this Mind, as I call it, which is apprehended 

 only by the Intellect ; whereas the Senfes perceive no more than the 

 jnatler of the Thing, and thofe material qualities which are continu- 

 ally changing. However imaginary this notion of identity may ap- 

 pear, as, I know, to fome every thing will appear fo that they can- 

 not fee with their eyes or lay hold of with their hands, yet it is 

 truly the principle, without which there would be no ftability or 

 permanency of exiftence in this lower world, but every thing would 

 be in a perpetual flux, like the ftream of a river, according to the 

 philofophy of Heraclitus and Protagoras, whom Ariftotle refutes * 

 by making the diftin£tion I make betwixt the Idea or Form of the 

 thing which is permanent, and its material and fenfible qualities 

 which are fleeting and conftantly changing. 



I will further add upon this fubjed, that whoever believes there 

 is no fuch internal principle, or Mind, as I call it, in Bodies, which 

 makes them cohere, moves them, and produces all their feveral quali- 

 ties and accidents, but that it is a certain arrangement and configu- 

 ration of the parts which produces all thefe efFetfls, and confliitutes 

 the nature and efl"ence of the thing, is a materialift. If this be his 

 opinion concerning Man or any other animal, he is acknowledged 

 by every body to be fuch ; and it will fcarcely be denied, if he has 

 the fame opinion with refped to the vegetable : And if he thinks fo 

 concerning animals and vegetables, he will, a fortiori, be of opinion 

 that unorganized Bodies are of the fame kind, deriving all their 

 qualities from the matter of which they are compofed, varioufly ar- 

 ranged. It was in this way that the Materialifts of old reafoned, par- 

 ticularly Epicurus, who made the nature and properties of every 

 .thing, organized and unorganized, vegetables and animals, and, a- 

 VoL. II. K mong 



• Metaph. lib. 4. cap. 5. p. 878. Ed. Du Val. 



