Chap. II. ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. 



79 



itfelf, which, as I have faid, is the inward form of the thing, or 

 fubjiatitialform, as the Peripatetics call it, producing all thofe external 

 qualities that afTedt our Senfes. 



Is it then neceffary, it will be faid, that we fhould be able to de- 

 fine a Man as Ariftotle has done, in order to have the Idea of a Man T 

 and I fay it is, in order to have a perfed Idea. But Ideas are more 

 or lefs perfedt ; and there is a very great difference betwixt the Idea 

 of a vulgar Man, and the Idea of a Man of Science or a Philofo- 

 pher : But flill the vulgar have Ideas. And I fay, that every Man 

 who has the ufe of Intelled:, upon contemplating any objed, fuch as 

 a Man, perceives that there is one nature in him, which makes him 

 what he is, and diftinguifhes him from every thing elfe : And this 

 one nature is the Internal Principle, or Mind, which the greateft fa- 

 vage, if he be a man at all, will apprehend, from obferving the ac- 

 tions of the animal ; for it is from energies and operations chiefly 

 that we know the nature of any fubftance. 



And here we may fee very clearly the difierence betwixt the Man 

 and the Brute ; for the Brute has no notion of that one nature, but 

 .perceives only the feveral external qualities of the thing which affed: 

 his fenfes. 



It is in this way that we form our Ideas of all animals, which, as 

 Ariftotle has obferved, are better diftinguifhed by their Mind, or 

 Inward Principle, than by their Outward Form. The fame obferva- 

 tion I extend to Vegetables ; for, if there be a Vegetable Life, 

 which, I think, no philofopher can deny, the difference of that Life, 

 or Mind, as I call it, muft diftinguifh one vegetable from another. 

 Nor do I ftop at the Vegetable ; but, as there is, according to my 

 philofophy, a motive principle, which I likcwife call Mind, in every 

 Body, unorganized as well as organized, I fay, that Mind makes a 

 diftindion betwixt unorganized Bodies, as well as betwixt Animals 

 and Vegetables : And, accordingly, we fee, that, according to the 



diiFerence 



