Chap. XI. ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. 183 



get another f — /Inpwered :-—firJl ^ From the cafe of Natural Genera- 

 tion '^-^econd^ From the Generation of Inferior Intelligences from the 

 Source of all Beif/g. — The Ideas of Plato confidered in this vieW', 

 -—Explanation of the dijfieully of conceiving the many in one.-— 

 Plato^s Dodlrine of Ideas conneEled alfo ijoith his DoElrine of Remi- 

 nifcence. — Explanation of it^ and of his Do5irine o/' Prefcience, 



THAT Plato and his Scholar Ariftotle did really differ upon tEc 

 fubjed: of Ideas, is the opinion of Philoponus the Commenta- 

 tor upon Ariftotle * : And, I think, there can be no doubt of the 

 matter; for Ariftotle's own writings, fetting afide the opinion of any 

 of his Commentators, prove it moft evidently ; and, indeed, there 

 is no controverted point in philofophy, of which he has treated more 

 at large or has mentioned oftener. What, therefore, Philoponus men- 

 tions as the opinion of fome philofophers of his time, who wanted 

 to reconcile the Mafter and Scholar, that Plato, by his Ideas, meant 

 no more than the ideas in the Divine mind, from which all things 

 are produced, and which Ariftotle did not deny, is, I hold, a mifre- 

 prefentation of what is faid upon the fubje<£l both by Plato and Arif- 

 totle ; For, as to Plato, it is evident from many paflages of his writ- 

 ings, particularly the Parmenides^ that he maintained ideas to be im.- 

 material fubftances, havir g a feppxate exiftence by themfelves out of 

 the mind of any intelligent being : And it is as evident that 

 Ariftotle underftood his dodrine of ideas in that fenfe; and, ac- 

 cordingly, has argued againft them, as things that have no real ex- 

 iftence, but were only rt^xTtcf^urocy as he calls them in his fecond 

 Analytics, that is, Wonders or Prodigies, Now, I think, it is im- 

 poftible to fuppofe that Ariftotle would have ventured to have 

 mifreprefented the doQrinc of his Mafter, when there were fo 

 many living that could have contradided him ; though it may 

 be true, what Philoponus fome where fays, that he did mifre?. 



prefent 



* See Lis Commentarv on the ]aft Analytics, p. 30. anJ following. 



