3o6 ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. Book IV. 



never can fo perfedly abftradt ourfelves from it, as to have any clear 

 conception of Spiritual Subftances, though w^e are fure of their ex- 

 iftence. 



I therefore hold it to be certain, that the Mind is not where the Bo- 

 dy is, in the fenfe of being contained in it, as a man is in a boat, to 

 ufe the comparifon of Ariftotle ; becaule a man in a boat mud occupy- 

 part of the Space in the boat, and I have fhown that Mind can oc- 

 cupy no Space. And in this I think I am fupported by the authority 

 of Ariftotle himfelf: For, in arguing agalnft Plato, who faid that the 

 Mind was felf-moved, and confequently ^cnx moved, he reprefents it 

 as an abfurd confequence of Plato's dodlrine, that he made Mind to 

 be in Place *, without which it could not be moved, all Motion 

 being a change of Place. Now, as a man in a boat has undoubtedly 

 a Place in the boat, it is impoffible, even according to Ariftotle, that 

 the Mind can be in the Body, in the fame manner as the man is in 

 the boat. 



Further, the Mind is not where the Body is, when it perceives 

 what is diftant from the Body, either in Time or Place ; becaufe no- 

 thing can adt but when and where it is. Now, the Mind a£ts when 

 it perceives: For Mind only ads in two ways ; either when it per- 

 ceives, or when it moves Body. The Mind, therefore, of every 

 Animal, who has Memory or Imagination, a£ts, and, by confequence, 

 exifts, ivhen and ivhere the Body ia not ; for it perceives objedts di- 

 ftant from the Body, both in Time and Place. 



I know it is commonly faid, that the Mind perceives thofe di- 

 ftant objeds, by a kind of pidyre in the Imagination. But I afk. 

 Who drew this pidure ? Where is the canvafe upon which It is 



drawn? 



* Lib. i. De Anima, cap. 3. where he fays that if, by its nature, the Mind be 

 moveable by any one of i\\c four different Icinds of Motion which he enumerates, it 

 niuft have a Place '• n«r«i ya^ «( M^HiT»t Kivtirtii tf too-*. 



