76 ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. Book II. 



there would not be variety fufTicient to make a fyflcm. Neither, 4th, 

 muft all the things in it be altogether different ; but there muft he 

 fome refemblancc even betwixt thofe things that feein mod unlike : 

 So that the rerum concord'ia difcors, which Horace applies to the fyf- 

 tem of the univerfe, is true of every fyftem in a certain degree, 

 jth, It is eflential to every fyftem that there fliould be fomething 

 principal in it to which every thing elfe is fubordinatc ; for this is 

 what makes the fyftem one: But, at the fame time, it mull be one in 

 wany\ and therefore the more various the fyftem is, that is the more 

 parts it confifts of and the more different thefe parts arc from one 

 another, (though all conneded with and referring to what is prin- 

 cipal in the fyftem, and giving union to the whole), the more beau- 

 tiful the fyftem muft appear to a mind that can comprehend it all 

 in one view. The 6th rcquifite, I fliall mention, of a fyftem, is, that, 

 though it may be very great, and greater than our limited capacities 

 can comprehend, yet it cannot be infinite, but muft have bounds ; 

 for otherwife it would be no lyftem, as having neither numbers nor 

 meafure, which are abfolutcly neceffary in forming a fyftem. Laft- 

 ly, The fyftem muft be governed by general laws ; for, if every 

 thing in it was governed by a particular law peculiar to that thing, 

 it would not be a fyftem. 



From what I have faid of the extent and variety that is neceffary 

 to make a fyftem beautiful, it is evident, that if the univerfe be a 

 fyftem, and a beautiful fyftem, as, I hope, I fhall be able to ihow it is it 

 muft be fuch a one as cannot be comprehended by the human mind.* 

 It may, therefore, be faid, that, as a fyftem is neceffarily a whole, if 

 we do not fee the whole, we do not fee the fyftem, nor can we cer- 

 tainly tell whether it be a fyftem or not. 



But to this I anfwer. That a fyftem may confift of other fyftems 

 leffer and fubordinatc ; and the univerle, if it Le a fyftem at ail is 



moft 



