58 ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. Book I. 



For, as Gregory Nazianzen has taught us, all the ideas of the Divine 

 IMind are realized, otherwiie they would exi!l there to no purpolc, 

 as many ideas exill; in our mind. And, indeed, it is moll ablurd 

 to fu[;po(e, that the general ideas in the mind of the Deity lo far 

 changed their nature, when they were realized, that they were di- 

 vided into the particular ideas of which they were compofed. They 

 proceeded, therefore, from the mind of the Deity as they exifted 

 in it, and formed immaterial fubftances, fuch as Plao tells us all his 

 ideas are ; and, indeed, as I have fliovvn, it is impollible to fuppofe 

 that any thing material can proceed from Deity. 



But this proceflion from the Deity was, like every other procef- 

 fion from hiin, regular and in due order. The firll in rank and 

 dignity, not in time, (for every thing proceeding from the Deity is, 

 like himfelf, eternal), are the higheft genufes, fuch as the Cate.,ories. 

 From them proceed lower genules, and from tiicfe genufes fpeciefes ; 

 and fo on till we come down to the loweft fpeciefes of things, which 

 produce nothing but individuals, that are incorporated with body 

 and animate all the bodies on this earth. And thus we have a fyf- 

 tem of beings all producing one another ; the higher and more ex- 

 cellent, the fubordinate and lefs excellent ; but all proceeding ulti- 

 mately from the firft caufe, and making a chain of beings in the 

 creation, like the chain in Hoiner, that was faftencd to the throne of 

 Jupiter, of which no link is wanting*; whereas there would be a 

 wonderful gap in the works of creation, if notiiing were interpofed 

 betwixt the iirft caule and the meaneft infetls, or thofe minds which 

 inform, as I have fhiown, not only animals and vegetables, but 

 even unorganized matter, and produce tliofe movemcn:s which we 

 obferve in fuch matter. 



Thefe are the ideas of Plato, of which I have faid fo much in the 



paflage 



* See vol. 5. p. 187. 



