220 ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. Book IV. 



Holding, therefore, that there was nothing fupernatural or mira- 

 culous in the cafe, it is, I think, a neceflary confequcnce, that thefe 

 articulate founds, with the fignification annexed to them, muft have 

 been in the Mind of the Comtefle before fhe fell aflcep, or became 

 difeafed ; for, if they had never been in her Mind, it would have 

 been, as I have faid, miraculous ; and it would have been fo like- 

 wife, if they had been once in the Mind, but had been altogether out 

 of it at the time fhe became difeafed, or fell afleep ; for their coming 

 back again to the Mind, in that cafe, muft have been by the opera- 

 tion of fome fupernatural power, as much as if they had been pre- 

 fentcd to the Mind for the tirft time. 



The fadt, therefore, as I underfland it, was, that this Breton Lau" 

 gunge was in the Mind of the ComtefFe at the time fhe became difea- 

 fed and fell afleep, though the perception of it was not, at that time, 

 prefent to her Mind. Nor is this fmgular ; for we very often dream 

 of things, the perception of which was not prefent to our Minds 

 when we fell afleep ; but then thefe things we could have recollect- 

 ed, and fo prefented to the Mind before we fell afleep, if any occa- 

 fion of fuch recolledlion had been given us ; and the Angularity of 

 the cafe of the Comtefl~e was, that fhe had totally forgot the Breton 

 language, and could not have recolleded a word of it before fhe fell 

 afleep. This Angularity makes the cafe a phaenomenon of Mind, 

 which cannot be explained without knowing, better than is to be 

 learned in any modern book of philofophy, the nature both of Mind 

 and Body. 



And, in xkitjirjl place, as Mind is an immaterial fubftance, of a 

 nature perfedlly different from Body, we cannot conceive that the 

 perceptions of our Minds make an impreffion upon it, fuch as a feal 

 does upon wax, and every Body, more or lefs, upon another ; 

 though, as almoft our whole language concerning Mind confifls of 



metaphors 



