30 ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. Book I. 



As I have faid fo much of the motion of body by mind, I think 

 it will not be improper to fubjoin fome obfervations upon our pro- 

 grefs from the knowledge of body, with which all our knowledge 

 in this life muft begin, to the knowledge of mind, which is the 

 fubjedl of fcicnce ; and from the knowledge of inferior minds to 

 that of fuperior, and even of the fupreme, as far as our limited ca- 

 pacities can comprehend. But, before wc can arrive at this highefl 

 of all fciences, we muft ftudy other fciences, beginning with that 

 which is moft natural to us, being fo much connefted as we are 

 with body; I mean natural philoibphy, as it is very properly called. 

 Upon this fubjed a great deal has been written in modern times, and 

 many experiments made; and yet 1 am not fure that any of our mo- 

 dern philofophers know what natural philofophy is, or what is the fub- 

 ieftofit. The generality of them, if not all, believe as Sir Ifaac New- 

 ton did, that body only is the fubjed of this philofophy, which does 

 no more than explain how body operates upon body, and produces 

 all thofe motions which we fee here on earth: Whereas, 1 fay, and 

 think I have proved, that all the motions, we perceive here on earth, 

 proceed originally from mind ; fo that natural philofophy does no 

 more than explain the operations of mind in the bodies that we fee 

 here on earth. Thefe bodies are of three kinds : FirJ}^ Bodies un- 

 organized, fuch as earth, ftones, and minerals, and which are com- 

 monly called inanimate; though I hold that there is a mind of one 

 kind or another in every body. For fuch is the union of all things 

 in this univerfe, that mind and body are never feparated : And it is 

 fit it fhould be fo, as body is by its nature merely paflive, and can 

 do nothing without mind, the only a£live power in the unive:fe ; 

 fo that body, unlefs it were incorporated with mind, could be of no 

 ufe in the creation : — Secondly^ Vegetables, whofe growth, nouriHi- 

 ment and propagation of their kind, muft be, as I have ihown, the 

 operation of mind : — And, Iqftly^ Animals, which, it is allowed by 

 every body, have in tiicm animal life, or that mind which is called 



the 



