Chap. IV. ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. i6i 



that perceives only the perifliable- Forms incorporated with Matter, — 

 is converfant only with individual things, and employs itfelf in the 

 government and diredlion of the Animal Life, — be the fame with 

 that which contemplates the eternal and unchangeable Forms of 

 things, — makes Mind its principal objeft, — abftrads itfelf as much as 

 is polTible in this ftate of exiftence from all external things, — and 

 places its whole happinefs in the fludy of Beauty and Truth ; or, 

 in other words, Whether the Pra<fl:ical and Speculative Intelled: be 

 the fame ? And I am of opinion, that they are the fame : And I 

 find, that the two commentators upon Ariftotle, Philoponus and 

 Simpllcius, are of the fame opinion. When I wrote the Firfl: Vo- 

 lume, I had fome doubt about the opinion of Simplicius ; but, up- 

 on ftudylng his commentary more diligently, I find, that he makes 

 our Intellect only one ; but, as he is full of the Platonic notions of 

 the proceflion of Mind, he fuppofes that our Intelledual Mind, per- 

 fed: in its own nature, goes out of itfelf, as it were, mixes with 

 Material Things, and becomes that Pradlical Intelled, which is of- 

 ten fo imperfedL 



To this opinion it may be objeded, into, That the feveral facul- 

 ties of Perception of the Human Mind are diftinguifhed from one 

 another by their feveral objedts. In this way, Senfe is diftinguifh- 

 ed from Intelled, the one perceiving individual things, the other 

 generals. Now, as we have one faculty by which we perceive Forms 

 incorporated with Matter, and another by which we perceive the 

 Forms pure and unmixed with Matter, and even Mind itfelf, the au- 

 thor of all Forms, thefe faculties muft be different. 



2do, The authority of Ariftotle may be urged againft me, who, 



though he allows there is an Intelledin us, which is immortal and e- 



ternal, exifts feparately, and energizes by itfelf,does,at the fame time. 



Vol. II. X fpeak 



