Chap. XIII. ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. 215 



That all thefe three fubftances, in our compofition, are minds, 

 and that every mind is an immaterial fubftance, I think I have prov- 

 ed in the 13th chapter of book 2. of the firft volume of this work; 

 though I know many of my readers will think it very extraordi- 

 nary, that the part of our animal frame, by which we grow and 

 are nourifhed, fhould have a mind in it, and be an immaterial 

 fubftance. But if we attend to its operations, by which it con- 

 c-odls and digefts our victuals, and feparates what is fit for <?ur 

 nourifhment, when it is turned into chyle and blood, from what 

 is unfit for nourifhment, and therefore is thrown off by perfpira- 

 tion or by fhool and urine., we muft be convinced that fo much 

 adtion and operation cannot be performed by body without mind, 

 unlefs we believe that body can adi and move itfeif without mind, 

 which I think is abfolute materialifm. And unlefs we believe that 

 there is a mind in us, by which we grow and arc ncurillied, we 

 cannot believe that there is a vegetable mind, from which this part 

 of our compofition has its name, but muft fuppofe that all the many 

 various operations of the vegetable, by which it grows and is nou- 

 rifhed, puts forth leaves, blofToms, flowers, and fruit, are all per- 

 formed by mere matter and mechamfm, without the operation of 

 mind ; which, if we believe, we may alfo believe that all the oper- 

 ations of nature are performed by matter or body without mind. 



In this manner, I think, I have proved, that there is in bur little 

 world, as well as in the great, the famous rzr^oLKrvg of the Pytha- 

 goreans, confifting of Intelligence, the Animal and Vegetable lives, 

 and Body ; which, they faid, was the difcovery of their mafter Py- 

 thagoras, and they thought it fo great a difcovery, that it was a 

 folemn oath among them, " By him who difcovcrtd the rer^a^ry;, 

 " the fource," - they faid, " of ever-flowing nature;" and, indeed, it 

 is the fource of every thing in this univerfe. And 1 have alfo 

 ihown *, that, as we are the image of God here upon earth, we 



have 

 * Page 193. 



