Chap.r. ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. 137 



Nor fhould we be furprifed that Man is To compounded, when 

 there is alike compofition in every other Animal, and even in Vegeta- 

 bles : For, in each individual of thefe, there is, iw/o. The common 

 Nature of the genus ; ido^ The more particular Nature of the fpe- 

 cies ; 3/zo, That more particular Nature ftill, which diftinguifh- 

 es one individual from another ; and, lajlly^ The common Elemen- 

 tal Life, or Principle of Motion, which is in all Bodies unorganized, 

 as well as organized. Nor will any one who has attended to the 

 varieties of Nature to be difcovered by the analyfis and decompofi- 

 tion of Bodies, be furprifed that the compofition of Minds fhould be 

 as various as that of Bodies. 



Thisdocftrine of three of the four Minds in our wonderful compofi- 

 tion, 1 mean the Vegetable, Animal, and Intelledual, being diftiuNft 

 fubftanccs, and not different qualities of one and they^"?W(? fubflance, is 

 no difcovery of mine, but the dodlrine of Ariftotle, and of the Pe- 

 ripatetic fchool,as delivered and mofl clearly explained by Philopo- 

 nus, in the introdudlion to his Commentary upon Ariflotle's books 

 De minima ; and, as Philoponus was a Chriflian, I have no doubt 

 but this was the dodrine of the church at that time. — As to ihe/oiirlby 

 or Elemental Mind; I have given a reafon in the note below, why they 

 do not mention it as any part of the compofition of Man. 



There is an objedlion which Philoponus, in that introdudion, 



ftates to this dodrine, calling it a vulgar and popular objedion ; 



namely, That, in this way, w^e have three Minds inftead of one. But, 



though it may appear a vulgar objedion to a philofopher, who 



Vol. II. S knows 



bers the fymbols of Divine and Spiritual things : And, therefore, I think, it i»- 

 better to explain this grand myftery of the Tetra^ys, by applying it to Mind rather 

 than to Body ; and, by fuppofing it a fymbol of thcfe four Minds, which, riling one 

 above another, as numbers do, animate the whole univcrfc, and govern its move- 

 ments. But, in the fchooi of Plato and Ariflotle, the Elemental Life was confi- 

 dercd as belonging only to Nature, not to Man; and, therefore, in the compofi- 

 tion of Man, they fpcak only of a trinity of Minds, the Vegetable, the Animal, 

 and the Intelledual. 



