Chap. VII. ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. 311 



Hitherto I have fpoken only of Time Paji ; I come now to in- 

 quire, whether the Animal Mind has Foreknowledge, as well xs Paft 

 Knowledge, and whether it can tranfport itfelf into Future as well as 

 Paft Times. And here I cannot help making an obfervation, which 

 will furprife even my philofophical readers — That there is not fo great 

 a difference betwixt ihe Pajl. and. the Future y and betwixt Prefcicnce 

 and Memory, or P\.ecolle£tion, as is commonly imagined ; for the 

 Future is no more prefent than the Paft, and, as the one has been^ 

 fo the other ivill be. If, therefore, the Mind can depart from the 

 Prefent, it does not appear to make a great difference w^hether it goes 

 to the one fide of it or the other, whether it tranfports itfelf to the 

 Future or to the Paft : The .one appears to me to be juft as incompre- 

 henfible as the other. The Deity, no doubt, fees at one view the 

 Paft, Prefent, and Future, and is of [all Times as well as of all Pla- 

 ces : And, that he may, in an extraordinary manner, communicate 

 to any Animal the Foreknowledge of certain events, and that he 

 has often done fo, I have no doubt. But the queftion here is, not 

 concerning any extraordinary gift of that kind, which the Almighty 

 may be pleafed to beftow upon any of his creatures, but whether 

 there is belonging to the Animal Nature any knowledge of the Fu- 

 ture. This knowledge, it muft be confefled, is not near fo com- 

 mon as the knowledge of the Paft ; and for a very good reafon 

 namely, that, without the knowledge of the Paft, which an Animal 

 has by his Memory and Imagination, it is abfolutely impoftlble that 

 an Animal of the better kind ftiould, in any circumftances or fitua- 

 tion, be able to carry on his oeconomy,. and provide for himfelf 

 and for his offspring. But, in certain circumftances and fitua- 

 tlons, it may be neceflary for the being or well being of fome 

 Animals, perhaps of ajl in the nati^ral ftate, ihat they fhould 

 have prefcience, in fome' degree, of mz/z/ra/ events, (for of human 

 counfels and adions there is no Animal that has any certain pre- 

 fcience, except by extraordinary gift from Heaven) ; and, when that 



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