92 



ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. Book IT. 



aiTeit tliat the praedicate does not comprehend the fubjed, nor is 

 comprehended in it. But though the praedicate of that particular 

 propofiiion do not contain the fubjed, nor be contained in it, it 

 will not from thence follow, that there is any idea which does not 

 contain fome other idea, or is not contained in it : For though 

 the praedicate of the negative propofition do not contain the fub- 

 jed, nor be contained in it, yet there muft be fome other fub- 

 jtd, which it contains or which is contained in it ; and that 

 muft be one or other of Porphyry's ^ft;!? tv rds* ^ viz. genus^ 

 Jpccics^ fpec'ific differc7ice^ peculiar^ and accidental ; which compre- 

 hend all the things of the univcrfe. Now, if it be any one of 

 thefe, it muft either contain or be contained in fomething elfe : 

 If it be a genus, it muft contain a fpecies : if it be a fpecies, it 

 muft contain individuals : If it be a fpecijic difference^ it muft be 

 contained in fome genus; or, if it ho. peculiar or accidental, it muft 

 neceflarily be contained in fome fubjed of which it is a peculiarity 

 or accident f. And thus it appears, that a negative propofition is 

 no exception to the rule I have laid down, that every thing in the 

 iiniverfe either contains or is contained in fomething elfe: To which 

 I will add, that many things both contain and are contained. A 

 lower genus is contained in a higher, and, at the fame time, con- 

 tains the fpecies under it. Again, the fpecies is contained in the ge- 

 nus, and, at the fame time, contains the individuals under it. And 

 what appears at firft fight to be an incredible paradox, the fame 

 thing, as 1 have fliown, both contains and is contained in fome other 

 thing X '• So that there appears to be a moft wonderful union, the 

 clofleft that can be imagined, of the things of this univerfe with one 

 another; and which fhows, as I have faid, the fyftem of the univerfe 



to 



* Thefe five words compi'ehend every thing belonging to nature or philofophy. — Sec 

 what I have faid of them, p. 32. and 55. of this vol. — alio in preface to vol. 3. p. liii. 



+ Wiih rcfpcct to the meaning of the word accident, fee p. 86. of this vol. 

 \ Seep. 81. 



