24 ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. BockL 



Now this wonderful progrefs of man, fo much more wonderful 

 than that of any other animal, Ariftotle knew : For he has told us, 

 that in his natural ftate he has not the ufe of intelled:, but only the 

 capacity of acquiring it. Now it is by intelled that all the world of 

 art has been produced, and man made fuch as we fee him. And 

 indeed if we could fuppofe, as many do, that fuch a natural ftate of 

 man, as I have defcribed, never exifted, then Ariftotle would have 

 defined a mere nonentity, a creature that neither is, nor ever was. 

 But that is not the cafe j and he has not only properly defined man, 

 but in his definition given a kind of hiftory of the fpecies, carrying 

 it on from the fir(l beginning of it, to its completion and perfedion 

 in intelleft and fcience : And, in my opinion, there never was a bet- 

 ter definition given of any thing. 



CHAP. 



