CHAP. I.] PRIMARY PHILOSOPHY DEFICIENT. 119 



stand all this of mere similitudes, as they might at first ap 

 pear, for they really are one and the same footsteps, and 

 impressions of nature, made upon different matters and sub 

 jects. And in this light the thing has not hitherto been 

 carefully treated. A lew of these axioms may indeed be 

 found in the writings of eminent men, here and there in 

 terspersed occasionally ; but a collected body of them, which 

 should have a primitive and summary tendency to the sci 

 ences, is not hitherto extant, though a thing of so great 

 moment as remarkable to show nature to be one and the 

 same, which is supposed the office of a primary philosophy. 



There is another part of this primary philosophy regarding 

 the adventitious or transcendental condition of things; as little, 

 much, like, different, possible, impossible, entity, nonentity, 

 &c. For as these things do not properly come under physics, 

 and as their logical consideration rather accommodates them 

 to argumentation than existence, it is proper that this point 

 be not quite deserted, fis being of considerable dignity and 

 use, so as to have some place in- the nnnnwmesit of the 

 sciences. But this should bo uc;;e in a manner very different 

 from the common : for example, no writer who has treated 

 of much and little, endeavours to assign the cause why some 

 things in nature are so numerous and large, and others so 

 rare and small ; for, doubtless, it is impossible in the nature 

 of things, that there should be as great a quantity of gold as 

 of iron, or roses as plenty as grass, and as great a variety 

 of specific us of imperfect or non-specific nature. 11 So, like 

 wise, nobody that treats of like and different has sufficiently 

 explained, why. betwixt particular species there are almost 

 constantly interposed some things that partake of both ; as 

 moss 1 betwixt corruption and a plant ; motionless fish be 

 twixt a plant and an animal ; bats betwixt birds and quad 

 rupeds, &amp;lt;fcc. Nor has any one hitherto discovered why iron 

 does not attract iron, as the loadstone does ; and why gold 

 does not attract gold, as quicksilver does, &e. But ot these 



h Specific bodies ; that is, those which have a certain homogeneous 

 form and regularity in their organization, and which exist in such variety 

 as to urge the mind to form them into species. Ed. 



By the aid of the microscope, moss has been discovered to be only a 

 collection of small plants, with parts as distinct and regular in their con 

 formation as the larger plants. The vervain which generally covers 

 the surface of moist bodies long exposed to the air presents 

 appearances. Ed. 



