152 ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. Book III. 



preffed it ; yet it is never mentioned in our modern philofophy, 

 though it be found ahnoft every where in Ariftotle. The diftindion 

 I mean is betwixt i'oif^r ov Capacity to become any thing, and Energy 

 or Jchiality : For the Antients, who had comprehenfive views of 

 things, and believed that Nature propofed an end in all her opera- 

 tions, confidcred not only what a thing was for the prcfent, but 

 what it was by Nature dcftined to be in future. Thus, they confider- 

 cd the Seed of the Animal or Vegetable as an Animal or Vegetable 

 in Capacity : The embryo in the womb, and even the infant when 

 it is born, was no more, in their language, than a Man in Capacity. 

 And not only in particular fubftances, fuch as Animals and Vege- 

 tables, did the antients fuppofe a ftate of mere capacity, but alfo in 

 the whole material world : For they underftood that all the Bodies 

 we fee,.fo various in their form and texture, did all proceed from a 

 firfi; Matter, which had no form at all, but was capable of receiving 

 all forms ; fo that it was every thing potentially^ but nothing a^ually. 

 And this Ariftotle underftood to be the cafe, even of Minds incorpC'- 

 rated with Bodies ; for he has faid that the Human Intelledl is, at 

 firft, nothing but mere capacity. 



In all things that are generated and corrupted, there is a ftate be- 

 twixt the two, which is the perfect ftate of the thing, and to which 

 it has, by Nature, a tendency and progrefs ; as, on the other hand, 

 when it has pafled that ftate, it has a tendency to decay and diflblu- 

 tion. This ftate of perfection is, in the language of Ariftotle, call- 

 ed, by a word of his own making, enteleheia. 



As Nature does nothing by ftarts and bounds, there is a regular 

 progreflTion in every thing, and fometimes a very flow one, from 

 mere capacity to this perfedl ftate, beft fhown in its energies and 

 operations, by which the end of Nature is fully accompliflied, every 

 thing, by Nature, being deftined for adion and operation ; for other- 

 wife 



