212 ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. Book IV. 



CHAP. IV. 



'The Importance of the Doflrine of Caufes. — Arlflotlc's Account of 

 QAd.\x{t%^ full and complete. — l^htoh -Addition of tnvo other Caufes, not 

 neceffary. — Abufe of the Term, CanCe.— -Thi/igs [aid to he Caufes 

 ivh'ich are only the remo'val of Impediments that hinder the real 

 Caufe to operate. — The Poiver of the Mind ivithout the Organs of 

 Senfe, enjident in Dreaming and Night-walking, or ivhen the Body 

 is affeHcd by certain Difeafes. — The Internal Organs, fuch as the 

 Brain, not properly Caufes, any 7nore than the External. — The 

 Intelledual Mind, not immediately conne^ed at all ivith the Body 

 or its Organs. — Hot and Cold, Moift and Dry, no Caufes of 

 Things. — I he confidering Juch Things as Caufes, leads to great Er- 

 rors. — The common Diftin^ion betivixt Firft and Second Caufes, 

 not fufficicntly attended to by our Modern Philofophers, particularly 

 the Newtonians. 



I 



N order to think and fpeak accurately upon Metaphyfical Sub- 

 ie£ls, we muft not only diftinguifh betwixt the different kinds of 

 Mind, but alfo betwixt the different kinds of Caufes, Mind is un- 

 doubtedly the Caufe of all things in Nature, and the only active 

 Being in the Univerfe, all things elfe being merely paffive ; and yet 

 we fpeak of many other things as Agents and Authors of various 

 produdlions : And 1 doubt not, but that an inaccurate language of 

 this kind has led into many errors in philofophy. 



No philofopher has fo well diftinguifhed the different kinds of 

 Caufes as Ariftotle; and, as philofophy is the knowledge of Caufes, 



he 



