Chap. ir. ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. 195 



Soul for every Body ; — a dodtrlne, which I hold to be as unphilofo- 

 phical as it is unwarranted by Revelation : But, fuppofing it were 

 true, what the learned Bifhop woald not believe *, that our Soul is 

 the younger brother of the Body, I fay, that our Souls, at whate- 

 ver time created, muft have been created with Ideas, and not mere- 

 ly the capacity of forming them, when they fliould be joined to 

 our Bodies ; for it is inconceiveable, that a fubflance, fuch as 1 have 

 proved the Soul to be, fhould exift with a Capacity only to exert 

 certain powers at fome after time. A Being, no doubt, may have 

 powers only in Capacity ; and we ourfelves have many fuch : But 

 we are fomething, in the mean time, without thofe Capacities. 

 Now, a Soul, without Ideas, either exerted or latent, is, as I have 

 faid, a mere nonentity ; for it is a fubftance without the qualities ef- 

 fential to it. 



We are not, however, to imagine, that thofe latent Ideas are like 

 the Ideas preferved in our memory in this ftate of our exiftence, 

 which can, by an ad of our Mind, be called up, and prefented a- 

 gain to the Mind ; but Nature has fo ordained it, (and, no doubt, 

 for very wife purpofes), that they can only be excited by the im- 

 pulfe of objeds upon our organs of Senfe ; and even this not at 

 once, but with a good deal of difficulty, which makes the progrcfs 

 flow from Senfations to Ideas. 



Neither is it neceflary to fuppofe that, if we had thofe Ideas for- 

 merly, we muft be confcious of them when they are excited in us, 

 as we are confcious of Ideas that we recoiled from our Memory. If, 

 indeed, it were true, what Mr Locke has maintained, that Confci- 

 oufnefs is the principle of Identity, being that xvhich make us the fame 

 to-day that we were yefterday or twenty years ago, there would be an 



B b 2 end, 



• His name is Synefius, the moft learned in philofopliy of all the Fathers of the 

 Church whofe writings I have perufed. See the paflage from him quoted in Vol. 

 I. p. 26*. in the Note. 



