Chap. VIT. ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. 59 



paflage above quoted. This dodtrine of ideas he brought with him 

 from Egypt, as well as the doctrine of the Trinity, whh which I 

 think it is intimately connedted; for, if the proccflion of things from 

 the fird: caufe was to end in the Third PeiTon of tlie Trinity, I 

 fliOLild think the fyftem of the univerfe mutilated and imperfecl. 



I have faid fo much of Ideas here and in o'her parts of this work, 

 that I am afraid the reader is v^eary of them, and wilhes that 1 would 

 change the luhjedl : And 1 will do fo after making one general ob- 

 fervation upon them, which I think is of great importance ; and it 

 is this, that the doctrine of ideas explains to us the eflence of things, 

 which, it is commonly faid, we do not know ; and, accordingly, I 

 have faid fo in more than one place. And it is certain that we i\e{- 

 cribe and define things only by their qualities ; but thefe qualities 

 cannot have produced themfelves, but mufi: proceed from fomething 

 which mufl; exill in the thing that has thofe qmlities, and which 

 therefore I call the eflence of the thing. Kow that elFeace is the 

 idea which exifls in every thing, and makes it what it is: And this 

 was perfectly underftood by Tim:sus the Locrian ; and he has fully 

 explained it in that moft valuable work of his, De ^n'una Mmnii, 

 where he tells us that all things in this material world proceed from 

 two caules, matter and idea ; and the matter he compares to the mo- 

 ther^ and the idea to the father : So that, accor^ling to his fyftem, 

 there is an idea in every thing, whivh, as I have Hiid, forms the 

 thing, makes it what it is, and gives it all thofe qualities by which 

 we know it and defcribe it, fo that this idea is truly its eflence: And 

 this I hold to be the beft account that ever was given or can be 

 given of the produdion of every thing in the univerfe. And it is a 

 moft perfed fyftem of Theifm ; for, as all ideas proceed from God 

 this philofophy of Tim^^us makes him the author of all things in the 

 univerfe. 



H2 It 



