206 ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. Book TIL 



under the fpeciefes; and all thefe inferior beings are conneded vrith 

 fuperior, by the clofleft connedion that can be imagined, thav is, by- 

 being parts of them : By which connedion, of whole and of part, 

 everything in the univerfe is conneded with everything; for every 

 thing either contains, or is contained, in every thing; and very many 

 things both contain and are contained. The fpecies, for example, 

 contains the individuals, and is itfelf contained in the genus; And 

 as that genus contains the ipecies, fo it is itfelf contained in a higher 

 genus : And fo the fyftem proceeds till we afcend to the higheft 

 genufes, or Categories, which are contained m the Firft Caufe of all 

 things. And, indeed, this union of things in the univerfe is fo re- 

 markable, that there cannot be any affirmative propofition without 

 the predicate of that propofition containing the fubjecf : And even 

 the fubjed of a negative propofition, though it be not contained in 

 the prcedicate of that propofition, muft be the genus or fpecies of 

 fome other propofition; lo that it likewife contains, or is contained, 

 in Ibmething elle. A fyftem, therefore, in which things are fo inti- 

 mately conne ted together, that there is nothing in it which is not 

 conneded with fome other thing, and where all things are conndtcd 

 with all things in this refped, that they all proceed from the fame 

 caufe, muft be the moft perfect fyftem that can be imagined. 



Now, let us confider the fyftem of the univerfe, according to 

 Ariftotle's dodrine of ideas. According to that dodrine, everything 

 is derived immediately from the Firft Caufe: Which muft be the 

 cafe if there be no intervention of general ideas, really exifting 

 and not in the mind only, betwixt the I'irft Caufe and the beings 

 in the univerfe; fo that the meaneft aaiuial Drid vegetable muft pro- 

 ceed immediately from the Firft Caufe. Vv ruv-cas, according to the 

 dodrine of the Trinity, even the Thi^d Hc-irm does not proceed' 

 immediately from the Firft C>iiic, bii^ bv rhr inrervemion of the 

 Second Perion. Ariftotlcs dodiine of ideas, ther.uM- -eilroys en- 

 tirely' 



