38 ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. Book L 



The next ftep in the human progreffion Is Propofitions^ in 

 forming which we mufl: necefrarily compare the two ideas that 

 we join together in the propofition : And by that comparifon 

 we difcover that the one is either a part of the other, or not a 

 part but excluded from it; for the truth of all propofitions, po- 

 fitive or negative, is the refult of that comparifon. Some of 

 thefe relations of ideas we difcover intuitively, and fuch propo- 

 fitions we call Axioms. But of other ideas we difcover the rela- 

 tion by a procefs we call Reafoning or Syllogifm ; but which ftill 

 goes on by comparing the ideas with one another. Thus I think 

 i have {hewn, that both intelled and fcience are derived from that 

 lacui-y of ('omparifon, which Ariftotle has made the firft thing ia 

 th'. Definition of Man ; and which, by our having the capacity to 

 earry it further than the brute, makes us Intelligent and Scientific 

 Creatures. 2 J/y, It appears that the definition, which Plato has givea 

 us of the operation of the mind when it forms ideas that is, making 

 one of the many^ is perfedlly juft, and applies not only to ideas, but 

 to all the operations of the intellect in forming arts and fciences. 

 And, laftlj/y from the account I have given of the progrefs of the 

 human mind, what I have elfewhere faid* is evident, that in this ftate 

 of our exiftence we know not the eflence of any thing. What we 

 know is only the relations of things to one another : For example, 

 that one thing is the genus or fpecies of another ; that there are 

 certain differences which diftinguiili the fpecies from the genus; 

 that there are properties of things which are peculiar to them, and 

 others that are accidental. What v;e know, therefore, is all in fyf- 

 tem, which is conftituted by the relations and connexions of things 

 to one another. And thus, by afcending from lelTer to greater fyf- 

 tems, we may come at length to the contemplation of the fyftem of 

 the univerfe and its great Author, which, to the intelledual mind, 

 is the beatific vifion. And here we may obferve the order and 



regularity 



• Vol. I, of this work, p. 56. 



