Chap. V. ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. 107 



WHILE Man is in the natural flate, he is no more than an ani- 

 mal with the capacity only of intelled ; of which he has 

 not the ufe till he enters into fociety, and acquires it hy communi- 

 cation with his fellow creatures. He is then truly a man, and forms 

 that microcofm, or little worlds confiiUng of every thing that is to 

 be found in the great world, namely, body, the animal and vege- 

 table minds, and that mind which is common to all bodies, unorga- 

 nized as well as organized, and which, therefore, is called, by Arif- 

 totle, Nature^ and is what I call the Elemental I^ifid^: And, laftly, 

 in the civilifed ftate he has, in energy and aduality, what before he 

 had only in capacity; I mean the intelledtual mind, which governs 

 in his little world. 



In this ftate, every man has within his clothes a little kingdom, 

 but which is not eafily governed ; for in civil fociety there are fo 

 many wants and defires, and fo many opportunities, which the civil 

 life furnijQies, of gratifying thofe defires, that our intelledtual mind, 

 or governing Principle, is very often led aftray, not only by our 

 fenfual appetites, but by our notions of the Fair and Beautiful ^ 

 which are fo various, and to be found in fo many different objeds, 

 that we need not wonder that the opinions of men concerning them 

 are fo different, not only in different nations, but in individuals of 

 the fame nation. But of the Beautiful I Ihall fay a great deal more 

 in the fequel. Here I am to inquire by what means thefc errors can 

 be prevented, which we fall into in the civilized life ; and, I fay, 

 this can be done no otherwife than by ftudying diligently the nature 

 of our little world, that is by pradifmg the precept of the Delphic 

 God, and learning to know ourf elves-, which is the beginning of hu- 

 man wifdom. This knowledge we muft learn from books of an- 

 tient philofophy, for we have not any teachers of philoibphy, fuch 



O 2 as 



* See vol. 3. of this work, book i. chap. 3, 



