1 34 ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. Buok IV. 



Genus of the order. This divifion alfo Iliows the wonderful tenden- 

 cy there is in Nature to the owf, and chat afcent by which things rife 

 above one another, till they end, like a pyramid, in a point. And fo 

 comprehenfivc is tlie divlfion, that it includes all the poffible variety 

 there can be in the matter : For every thing muft either be only a 

 Species, only a Genus, or both Genus and Species ; and, bcfides 

 thcfe, there can be nothing elfe. Man, for example, being the loweft 

 Species, and having nothing under it but Individuals, is a Species only : 

 The Genus, Animal, which is immediately above Man, is both Genus 

 and Species ; for it is a genus with refped: to Man, but it is a Spe- 

 cies with refpeil to the ro iij.^lv^ov, or animated Being : And fo we a- 

 fcend till we come to Sitbfiancc, which is a Genus only, and not a 

 ■Species; and, as I obferved elfewhere *, we may reduce all the Cate- 

 gories, or highefl: Genufcs, to one, viz. Subjlance and its Attributes, 

 which makes this Logical Syftem of the Antients a kind of Syfteni of 

 Theology. 



Thus, it appears that tlie language of antient philofophy mofl 

 clearly exprefles the nature of things ; and the terms of Art, fo far 

 as concerns this philofophy of Ideas, are very few, being no more 

 than five, viz. Subftance and Accident, Genus, Species, and Differ- 

 ence. In place of this language, fo fimple and plain, Mr Locke has 

 thought proper to introduce a new one, much more perplexed and 

 obfcurc : For, in the firjl place, he has confounded Senfations and 

 Ideas, making Ideas to be Senfations, and Senfations Ideas ; — things, 

 as I have fliown, in their nature, perfedlly different : What is, pro- 

 perly fpeaking, Ideas, he calls Abftradl Ideas, as if there were no 

 Ideas but what were abftradtcd from Matter : Then he fpeaks of 

 Simple Ideas and Compound Ideas, and Simple Modes and Mixed 

 Modes ; — terms which heufesin fuch a way, that I am often at a lofs 

 tp know whether he means by them Accidents or Speciefes. And I 



think 



« Vo!. I. p 36. 



I 



