Chnp. Xir. A N T I E N t M E T A P H Y S I C S. 1 75 



only to the knowledge of God, but alfo of man, and of the whole 

 fyflem of nature; — in ihort, to every knowledge tliat is of the greatefl: 

 value in human life, which we never can learn in any degree of per- 

 feftion, without firft knowing ourfelves. Nor is; this to be wondered, 

 when we confider that man is a little world, confaining a portion of 

 every thing that is to be found in the great world j fo that he may 

 be faid to be an epitome of that world. 



Thus it appears, that from the knowledge of our own minds we, 

 according to the natural progrefs of our knowledge, proceed to the 

 knowledge of man in general, that is to morals and politics. And in 

 this ftcp of our progrefs we ought to take along with us the fcience 

 of Logic, by which we learn to know what truth is, and the oper- 

 ations of our intelledlual mind in the fearch of it, and to conduiS 

 properly thefe operations: So that it is a knowledge which ought to 

 accompany fciences of every kind, but which cannot be learned, any 

 more than the other things I have mentioned, except by the (ludy 

 of the operations of our own minds. 



The next ftep in the progrefs of our knowledge, and which con- 

 cludes that progrefs, is what is called Metaphyfics ; by which we 

 fludy not particular beings, fuch as man or any other animal on earth, 

 but Being in general and its properties, that is tiie general princi- 

 ples of all beings, and the firft caufe of them all, the Supreme 

 Being. This fcience, therefore, includes Theology, which is the 

 fummit of human knowledge, and indeed of the univerfe. 



All thefe feveral fciences which I have mentioned, namely the 

 knowledge of natural bodies and their feveral qualities, the know- 

 ledge of the human mind, and of Morals and Politics which arife 

 from that knowledge, likewife of Metaphyfics and Theology, are 

 all comprehended in Philofophy; and as the happinefs of our inteU 



leftual 



