128 ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. Book III. 



CHAP. IV. 



The Animal Nature endowed "with a Principle of Motion and Per- 

 ception; — capable of P leaf lire and Pain, Happinefs and Mifery; — 

 inhabits Organized Body. — Firft rank of Beings Intelledlual. — Se- 

 cond, Senfitive. — Third, poffcffmg the Power of Motion; fuch 

 as Vegetables, and Bodies commonly, though improperly, called 

 Inanimate. — Impoffible to Jet bounds to the variety oj Speciefes in 

 the Univerfe, but by the impofibility of their exijlence. — Only one 

 Being of perfeSl Intelligence, — different degrees of imperfe^ Lite Hi' 

 gences ; — Man the lowejl of thefe. 



BY Animal the reader mufl: not fuppofe that I only mean a body 

 which has in itfelf a mind that moves it ; which muft be the 

 cafe of every body that we fee moved, not by any external caufe, 

 fuch as the impulfe of other bodies, but by an internal principle, 

 that can be nothing elfe but mind, which, as I have fhov>n, is the 

 caufe of the motion of all bodies. But, by animal, I mean a fub-' 

 ftance that has a mind in it, which not only moves it, but has per- 

 ceptions by what we call organs of fenfe, and confequently appe- 

 tites and defires, which, as they are gratified or not gratified, pro- 

 duce pleafure or pain, and confequently happinefs or mifery. And 

 this mind inhabits the body which is organized and in that way 

 prepared for the perceptions of fenfe ; for I fpeak here only of the 

 animals of this earth, which are compofed of body and mind, not of 

 beings purely fpiritual and without bodies. 



The 



