;j2 ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. Book 1, 



For, by tlie ftudy of our own intellectual mind, we muft know that 

 it is a fubftance quite diftindl from our body, and fo much uncon- 

 nedled with our body in its actions and operations, that, in thefe, 

 it is impeded by our body ; and, in this rcfpedl, it is pevfcdly dif- 

 ferent from our anim.,1, vegetable, and elemental minds, wliich are 

 fo conneded with body, that they cannot be conceived to 9.Q. or 

 exift without it. 



In this way, I think, it is clearly proved, that our intelledual 

 mind, though inclofed in our body in this life, is a fubftance quite 

 diftindt from our body ; and, in this way, from the moll certain of 

 all knowledge, I mean the knowledge of ourlclves, we form the 

 idea of an immaterial fubftance, and fo are fitted for the ftudy of 

 fuperior intelligences, and even of the fupreme intelligence, as far 

 as we can comprehend it. And thus we are prepared for the ftudy 

 of the higheft part of philofophy and of human knowledge, I mean 

 Theology. 



Upon the fubjed of the progrefs of the human mind to philofo- 

 phy, I would recommend to the reader a treatife of a philofopher of 

 the Alexandrian fchool, Ammonius Hcrmeias, upon the fubjccl of 

 The Five Words of Porphyry, another philofopher of that fchool, viz. 

 Genus, Species, Difference, Peculiar, and Accidental ; which are ge- 

 neral ideas comprehending every thing belonging to philofophy. In 

 this treatife, Ammonius has given the beft account, I ever read, of 

 the nature of philofophy, and of the fciences proper to prepare us for 

 the ftudy of it. Among other things he has obferved, that, from 

 the ftudy of natural philofophy, which treats only of mind incor- 

 porated with body, we ought not to proceed immediately and di- 

 rectly to that higher philofophy, which confiders mind as entirely 

 abftraded from body; for, fays he, that is too great a ftep to 

 make at once. And, therefore, before we ftudy mind of that kind, 



he 



