HS^ ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. Book III. 



I call the elemental mind *, is fo univerfal in all nature, that Arifto- 

 tie calls it by the name of nature. 



His laft work of philofophy is called Metaphyfics^ as coming af- 

 ter his Phyfics\ and is very properly made the lafl part of his phi- 

 lofophy, as it treats of the firft: principles of this univerfe, and con- 

 fiders the ra ovrct *i ovrct ; that is, confiders things, not as the terms 

 of proportions or fyllogifms, but by themfelves, and as exifting in 

 nature, and not as the fubjedt of any particular fcience, though they 

 be the principles of all fciences, and of all things exifting in the 

 univerfe. 



From this fcience, which may be called the fcience of fciences^ 

 we are to fupply the defeats of inferior fciences, that do not demon- 

 ftrate, nor fufficiently explain, their principles. Geometry, for ex- 

 ample, and Arithmetic, are no doubt demonftrative fciences ; of each , 

 of which Euclid has given us a fyftem. From him we learn that 

 the fubjecfl of one of them is lines and figures^ and of the other num- 

 hers. But he has not told us to what Category thofe fubjecls belong; 

 fo that from him we do not learn what are the fubjeds of which he 

 treats. But the Metaphyfics of Ariflotle lets us know that they be- 

 long to the Category of quantity: For, to one or other of the cate- 

 gories, all things in this univerfe muft be referred ; and, if that re- 

 ference is not made, we cannot be faid truly to know the nature of 

 the thing. But, further, in order to underlland perfedly the nature 

 of the two fubjeds of which Euclid treats, we muft divide the ge- 

 neral idea of quantity into quantity continuous and quantity difcete; 

 the firft of which is the fubjecl of geometry, and the other the fub- 

 je£t of arithmetic. But this is a divifion which Pluclid has not made; 

 and, indeed, he could not make it, as he has not told us that quan- 

 tity is the common fubjed of both the fciences. 



That 

 * Vol. I. of this work, p. 231. 



