MEMOIR OF ARISTOTLE. 
91 
that appellation from the Stagirite himself, who has 
not treated the three subdivisions of this branch as 
separate sciences, hut 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 modem 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, power, 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 yirx, tk 
funxa. ( 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. 
