Cliap. T. ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. 25 



.difference of Ao>/xoi', by which a man not learned in the antlent 

 Philofnphy, and not able to make the dlftindtion between Ao^'os and 

 jo'js will fuppofe that he meant what we call rational. But it is evi- 

 dent, from what follows, that Ariftotle did not underftand that Man 

 was by nature a rational animal, as we underftand the word. To 

 know what Koyi'^v means, we muft know what is meant by Koyoi. 

 Now Myoi, in its proper fignincation, and as it is ufed by Euclid, 

 who ufes no word in a metaphorical fenfe, denotes a certain relation 

 betwixt things, fuch as numbers and figures *, and which we ex- 

 prefs in Englifh by the word ratio. Now, it is by comparifon that 

 we difcover the relation of things to one another, and therefore Ao- 

 yiv.oi denotes what has the faculty of making this comparifon, ac- 

 cording to the ordinary derivation of Greek words. 



Man, therefore, according to Ariftotle, is not only feniuive, as 

 all animals are, but he has the faculty of comparing his fenfations : 

 And in this way he is diftinguiftied from the loweft clafs of animals, 

 fuch as mothSj and worms and other reptiles, and thofe imperfe^St- 

 animals called Zoophytes, fome of which, like vegetables, do not 

 move from one place to another f. Thefe do not appear to have that 

 comparative faculty ; but man is ranked, by Ariftotle, with the higher 

 fpeciefes of brutes, fuch as hcrfes and dogs, v?ho certainly have that 

 comparative faculty ;. for they diftinguifh one kind of food from 

 another, and of the different ohjeds, which they perceive by their 

 fenfes, they choofe what fuits them beft. Any man, accuftomed to 

 ride, will obferve, that his- horf&, when left to himfelf, choofes that 

 part of the road which is fmooth and not deep, in preference to that" 

 which is ftony or deep. Now, he could not give that preference 

 without comparing the two. And the brutes form what we may call 



*• See Vol. I. of Origin of Lnng. p. 3t. and p. 333. 



% A:a{loteles de IMoria Animaliuin, lib, 1. cap. i. p. 193. edit. Da Vall^ 



