Chap. 11. ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. 147 



What I have faid in this and the preceding chapter, will, I hope, 

 put the important dodtrine of the feparate exiftence of the Intellec- 

 tual Mind in a clearer view than it has been hitherto put, and will 

 fliow the truth of what Ariftotle fays, " That, when it fo exifts, it is 

 " what it truly is *;" by which he means, that, being free of the con- 

 tagion of the Body, and delivered from all the paffions and difor- 

 ders which its conjundion with the Animal produces, it is truly it- 

 felf. And indeed it is much more difficult to conceive it joined 

 with a fubftance fo diflferent as Body, than to conceive it exifling by 

 itfelf. 



What I have faid will, I hope, alfo put the immortality and e- 

 ternity of the foul upon the fureft bottom, on which philofophy can 

 put it : And, accordingly, Ariftotle makes that conclufion from its 

 feparate exiftence "j". And, indeed, it anfwers at once all the objec- 

 tions that have been made to its immortality : For, if it be a fepa- 

 rate fubftance from the Body, it is not merely a certain modification, 

 or organization, of Matter, as Dr Prieftley maintains, which, there- 

 fore, muft be at an end when the Body is diftblved ; and, if it be 

 a feparate fubftance from the Animal Life, it will not perifli when 

 that life ends, as Lucretius fuppofes. 



And indeed, the arguments ufed by this philofopher plainly fhow, 

 tTiat the fourcc of the error is confounding the three fubftances, of 

 which we are compounded, with one another, and with the Body with 

 which they are all incorporated. And, indeed, if I really believed tliat 

 all the three were qualities of the fame fubftance, fo united together, 

 that they could not exift feparately, I fliould be much difpofed to 



T 2 believe, 



* ^«»,r9-t<j, Je erii fi«»o» rtvi' ixi^ tTTt. lib 3. De Atiima, cap. 6. 



t The words he ufes are, •^«».xt<ij *«. a.?^(«». — See the explanation of tliefe words, 

 v'hich I have given in a note upon p. 140. of vol. i. 



