156 ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. Book III. 



appears to me, that, if Societies had never been formed nor Arts 

 invented and pradiled, we never lliould have had any ufe of Intel- 

 le»ft. And, as there is no reafon to doubt but that every nation was, 

 at fome time or another, in this favage ftate ; therefore, I fay, this 

 progrefs from Potentiality to Aduality is of the Species, as well as 

 of the Individual : And as cur Intelledt is by far our nobler part, 

 fo the progrefs of it is very much flower than of our Animal and 

 Vegetable part. But of this progrefs of Man I will fay a great deal 

 more in the fubfequent part of my work : I ihall therefore only add 

 here, that, if there were not fuch a progrefs in Man, and a progrefs 

 not to end with this life, human life would be not only miferable, 

 but rldiculoufly imperfedt, and quite irreconcileable with any Syftem 

 of Wifdom and Goodnefs in the Univerfe. 



Of our progrefs from Senfations to Ideas, and of the difference 

 betwixt thefe two, I have fpoken fully elfewhere. As the firft exer- 

 cife of Intelledl among Men muft have been pradical, and, as the 

 fubjed of Pradlice is Particulars, or Individual Things, it is evident 

 that, in our firft Ideas, there could not have been the feparation, a- 

 bove mentioned, of the Form from the Matter ; but the Compofite 

 would be the Subject of fuch Ideas. Of the manner in which we firft 

 form our Ideas, I have already fpoken at pretty great length *. I have 

 there faid, that, among the feveral qualities, which, we fee, are inhe- 

 rent in the fame Subjedl or Subftance, as it is called, we perceive one 

 that is principal, which makes the thing what it is, and diftinguifhes 

 it from every other thing. This is the Idea of the Thing, which 

 when we perceive to be common to many things, we are faid to^^- 

 neralife, and to have the Idea of a Species. In this way we perceive, 

 indeed, the One in the Many ; but we perceive it only with the Many. 

 Such are the Ideas of all Savages : For, to deny that Men who 



Speak, 



* P. 72. 85. 



