MEMOIR OF ARISTOTLE. 91 



that appellation from the Stagirite himself, who has 

 not treated the three subdivisions of this branch as 

 separate sciences, but often blends their different 

 principles in the same discussion. The name is un- 

 known in his original works, and arose from the cir- 

 cumstance of certain treatises on what he denomi- 

 nates the First Philosophy or Theology, being placed 

 in the edition of Andronicus the Rhodian, after the 

 Physics.* This arrangement was adopted by other 

 commentators, and as the subjects were of an ab- 

 struse and speculative nature, the term was applied 

 by the schoolmen to what in modern writers is de- 

 signated by the Philosophy of Human Mind. In his 

 Physical disquisitions, the genius of Aristotle plunged 

 into an abyss, which it could not fathom ; and in at- 

 tempting definitions of the terms, act, poiuer, pro- 

 perty, accidence, substance, energy, potentiality, &c. 

 he shewed the futility of endeavouring to explain 

 what is indefinable, merely by substituting words 

 instead of ideas. In considering Being in union 

 with matter, and investigating those universal prin- 

 ciples under which he conceived all existing things 

 to be arranged, he fell into the absurdity of con- 

 founding mental impressions with the facts which 

 nature presented to his observation. Instead of look- 



* Andronicus is said to have prefixed to the twelve or 

 fourteen books, which had no title, the epithet ret ^rx, TO. 

 (putrixa. (metaphysica), the things after the physics ^ to signify 

 that he found these books so placed in the original collec- 

 tion, or to intimate that he judged this to be their proper 

 position. 



