Co ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. Book I. 



It is thefe ideas which give body its form, and make it what it is, 

 either an animal hody, a vegetable, or a mineral. And, indeed, it 

 would be ablolute materialiim to iuppofe that matter could give it- 

 felf thofe different forms and qualities of body : So that 1 hold that 

 an idea, or in other words, mind, is abiblutely neceffary to give a 

 particular body that form by which it is diftinguifhcd from other 

 bouies. And it is the fame idea, or mind, that produces thofe mo- 

 tions which belong to all bodies, unorganized as well as organized, 

 by which they afcend or defcend, or are moved in the line in which 

 they are impelled, and by which they arc moved to or from one 

 another. This is the mind which I call the elemental mind, and 

 which is fo univerlal in nature, that Ariftotle calls it by the name 

 oi Nature; and it no doubt produces all the motions in bodies which 

 we call natural motions, and in that way diftinguilhcs them from the 

 motions produced by the animal and vegetable minds, which are to 

 be confidered as minds quite different from this natural and univer- 

 fal mind, as it may be called. 



Thofe ideas of things material are very properly fuppofed by Pla- 

 to to have an exiftence feparate from the body in which they are in- 

 corporated, and to be more excellent, being pure and unmixed, 

 than when they are thus incorporated. And this is what he calls 

 the 'ayro-avY'ojjTcj and the 'aLirc-'(^;7r.c. And of the fame kind was 

 every plant of the field, which, our Bible tells us, the Lord made be- 

 fore they were in the earth, and every herb before it grew*. Now, 

 ihefe plants and herbs, befoi-e they were in the earth and grew, I 



can 



* Chap. ii. V. ;. of Genefis. What the words in Hebrew are I do not know, as I 

 do not undi^rftand thiit language ; but, accord ng to the Sejituagint, the words are very 

 properly tranflatcd in our Bible. In the Septuagint it is, K«( ttxv x,^utt> aygsi/ (t^«.c,<rs) 



jTPO Toa yt-.riui eiri Tiij yiif, r.ai itittra. ^ojTs* «y«(i», Tf» iiv xix,:tO.»i. And I am perfuad- 



ed it is will tranflatcd from the Hebrew •, for I cannot believe but thct thefe 70 men 

 underftood the Hebrew better than any men now living. 



