Jhap. III. APPENDIX. ^^^ 



tients confidered as the only things that could with propriety be faid 

 really to exlft ; the other, they faid, were in a ftate fomething be- 

 twixt exirtence and non-exiftence ; they could not be faid not to 

 exift at all, nor could they be faid to have any real exiftence, as they 

 were not one moment the fame that they had been the preceding. 

 This fo important diftindion of things is laid down, both by Plato 

 and Ariftotle, and particularly by Plato, who has made it the founda- 

 tion of his philofophy in the Timaeus* : And, indeed, he mentions 

 it always where he treats of any abftrufe point of philofophy ; and 

 it is a diftindion he got from the Pythagorean School, as is evident 

 from the fragments of that philofophy ftill extant t- Now, of thefe 

 two kinds of objedts, fo different in their nature, the former, fay 

 thefe philofophers, are apprehended by the Intellect only, the other 

 by the Senfes and the Senfitive Mind ; And hence it is that the 



U u 2 former 



* The words of Plato are, E5-t<» o-jv o< x^st' f«>)v oe|«» ■^g^utoi ^txi^inoi rx ts. t» t» 



«v t4ev «<H, ytvis-iv ot 6-jK l)C'>'>' *«' T< TO yiyfifiiitv f^iv, «y c£ ovoiTroTi, Te ftiv 2"») yer.a-a fiirx 

 >.«y8v ■!riBi'K-f,TrTt)'/, k« x.xtx rxvret ev* t« o oiv 00^*1 /*tT ceti^S tifiuj ci?^iyo'j Co^xtrrov. yjyve^us- 



v»» x.xi MTToXXvuivof), evTjK; ^i ovhyriTi ov. T'unaeus^ p. 27. edit. Serrani. Here the learn- 

 ed reader will obferve that, to what really and truly exifts, that is, the t« o», Plato 

 oppofes the t» y/vvo^-sv^v, a word of common ufe both in Plato and Ariftotle, but 

 very difiicult to tranflate into Englifh, as well as into Latin ; for neither of thefe lan- 

 guages has a word to exprefs the prefent participle of the paflive voice in Greek. 

 The only idea, therefore, that I can give of it to the Englifh reader is, that it denotes, 

 a thing in generation^ or £» yi^ian^ as the Greeks exprefs it, or, as we may exprefs it 

 by a circumlocution, becoming fomething^ hut not yet become any thing. 



f See a precious fragment of that philofophy yet preferved to us, and printed with 

 Plato's works, viz. Timaeus the Locrian's treatife De Anima Jllundi, (Platonis O- 

 pera, p. 94. edit. .Serrani), where the render will obferve that what Plato calls tlie 

 T» avTflc, or the Tx svT^f «>r^, Timaeus calls i^ixi. See alfo Jamblichus Dc Vita Py. 

 ihagorae, cap. 29. where he tells us that Pythagoras held nothing to be rcaJly cxifting 

 but what was immaterial and eternal^ and which, he faid, were the only active things 

 in the unlverfe ; and, as to corporeal things, he faid they had no exiftence, except be 

 participationof thefe immaterial forms or Ideas. See aHb the fame author, cap. 1,1^ 

 towards the end •, and Porpliyrius Dc Vita Pythngoracy parag. 46. 



