Ghap.I. ANTI EN T METAPHYSICS. 15 



every operation of the human mind, animal as well as intellectual, 

 is to be derived. And fir ft, he compares corporeal obje£ts, or the 

 objedis of fenfe, with which all our knowledge in this life muft be- 

 gin ; and by that comparifon he difcovers that fome of them are 

 more fit for the purpofes of animal life than others, and to thefe 

 gives the preference, being diredled either by his fenfes, to which 

 fome of them are more agreeable than others, or by inftincfl, which 

 prompts him as well as other animals to choofe what is fitteft for the 

 prefervation of the individual, and the continuation of the kind. 



The next a£t I fliall mention of this comparative faculty, and 

 which is alfo common to him with the Brute, is that by which he 

 difcovers that the feveral qualities, he perceives by his fenfes 

 in any particular object, are joined together in one obje(ft. This is 

 an union which, as Proclus, ad Timaeiim^ p. 76. has very well ob- 

 ferved, is not difcovered by the fenfes, which only report each its 

 own perception. It is therefore difcovered by the Ac^oc, or compa- 

 rative faculty, which is common to us with the brute. Another ex- 

 crcife of that faculty is that, by which he difcovers an Gbjed to be 

 the fame with that which he had feen before. This he does, by 

 comparing the objed, when he fees it a fecond time, with the pic- 

 ture of it which he had retained in his Phantafia after feeing it the 

 firft time. And farther, when he fees an objed of the fame kind, 

 having all or moft of thofe marks which his fenfes had perceived ia- 

 the firft ohjed, he knows it to be of the fame kind. And this fa- 

 culty of comparifon the brute likewife has i for it is by it that he- 

 diftinguifhes animals of his own fpecies from thofe of another, or 

 animals of different fpeciefes fro.Ti one another, as a man from a. 

 horfe, or a horfe from an ck. 



fraosi 



