DEFINITIONS. ij^ 



In the mean time, as another mode of dividing natural 

 beings will make their several characters more clear, I 

 need hardly apologize to the reader for so soon giving 

 him an example of the diiFerence betvireen division and 

 arrangement, and showing him how far they are from 

 being, as some naturalists think, synonymous. 



10. There are, says Mr. Locke, but two sorts of beings 

 in the world which man knows or conceives. To these 

 this famous metaphysician gives the names of cogitative 

 and incogitative, answering very nearly to what we havei 

 hitherto termed intelligent and unintelligent. 



Intelligent beings are the only operative causes or prin- 

 ciples which we can conceive. But their most obvious 

 quality is their incapability of mensuration. Unity is their 

 great characteristic, and it is impossible to conceive parts 

 of them. 



The study of the nature of intellectual beings constitutes 

 Metaphysical science, and informs us that there are only 

 two sorts of such beings, the distance betw^een the powers 

 of which is infinitely great. 



1. One universal Primary and continuous cause, of 

 God, in whose hand is the life of every living thing. 



2. Many secondary and incontinuous causes, such 

 as a human soul, which has been to a certain degreei 

 created an independent principle by God, and which 

 during his pleasure will continue to enjoy its free agency* 



11. Of unintelligent beings we know only three sortsy 



1. Mattery 



2. Space, 



3. Tirne, 



N 2 



