DE PRINCIPIIS ATQUE ORIGINIBUS. 275 



inquiries beyond the fact of the existence of matter pos 

 sessed of such and such primitive qualities. On what do 

 those primary qualities ultimately depend? On the &quot;lex 

 sunnna essentise atque naturae ... vis scilicet primis 

 particulis a Deo indita, ex cujus multiplicatione omnis 

 rerum varietas emergat et confletur.&quot; Whether this 



O 



highest law can ever be discovered is bv Bacon left 



*/ 



here as elsewhere doubtful ; but he does not forbid men 

 to seek for it. But what he utterly condemns is the 

 attempt to make philosophy rise above the theory of 

 matter. We must ever remember that Eros has no 

 progenitors, &quot;ne forte intellectus ad inania deflectat &quot; 

 that we turn not aside to transcendental fancies ; for in 

 these the mind can make no real progress, and &quot; dum 

 ad ulteriora tendit ad proximiora recidit.&quot; We must 

 of necessity take as the starting point of our philoso 

 phy, matter possessed of its primitive qualities ; and 

 this principle is in accordance with the wisdom of those 

 by whom the myth of Eros was constructed. And 

 certainly, Bacon goes on to say, &quot; that despoiled and 

 merely passive matter is a figment of the human 

 mind ; &quot; a statement which refers to the Aristotelian 

 doctrine in which the primitive A^ is not conceived 

 of as a thing actually existing, but as that which first 

 receives existence through the eI8:js, wherewith it is 

 united. Of this doctrine Bacon asserts that it is al 

 together trifling : &quot; For that which primarily exists 

 must no less exist than that which thence derives its 

 existence ; &quot; that is to say, matter must in itself exist 

 actually and not potentially. And the same conclusion 

 follows from the Scriptures, &quot;wherein it is not said 

 that God created hyle, but that he created heaven 

 and earth.&quot; 



