iy6 ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. Book IIL 



The phantafia is necefTary for carrying on our animal oeconomy 

 as well as that of the brute ; for othcrwife neither we nor the brute 

 couki have known that any objea, we fee;, was the fame that we had 

 feen before j as it is by comparing the objed, w^e fee, with the image 

 of it in the phantafia, that we difcover the famenefs. But it ferves, 

 as I have faid, another purpofe ; which is to enable us to form» 

 better than we could do otherwife, our firft ideas, that is, our 

 ideas of particular objeas: And in general it maybe obferved, 

 that both our fenfations, and the images of them in our phantafia, 

 are not only neceffary for our animal life, but providence has fo 

 ordered matters, that they are made fubfervient to the noblefl: faculty 

 of our mind ; I mean our intellea : For it is by them that we are 

 enabled to form ideas, and of ideas to make arts and fciences, by 

 w^hich we become creatures of intellea, not only in capacity but ac- 

 tually fuch. 



There is one difference to be obferved betwixt us and the brute 

 with regard to the phantafia. The brute makes no ufe of his phan- 

 tafia, but when the objeds there imaged are prefented again to his 

 fenfes ; or w^hen there is a certain inftind belonging to his nature, 

 prompting him to inquire concerning thefe objeds and to find them 

 out ; as in the cafe of a mother with regard to her offspring, or a 

 herding animal with regard to his herd. But man, without being 

 prompted in either of thefe ways, or by any thing external, exa- 

 mines the objeds pidured in his phantafia, and compares them to- 

 gether, and in that way difcovers that in which they are like or dif- 

 ferent. And what makes man do this, without being excited by 

 any external obj^d, is that love of knowledge which is effential to 

 his nature, and without which it is impoffible that he could have 

 acquired the knowledge he has acquired. And this motive, to the 

 examination of objeds of fenfe painted in his phantafia, may be af-. 

 cribed to inftind in him, as well as the motives which, I have faid, 



excite 



