MEMOIR OF ARISTOTLE. 
9 
templates the Divine Being ; it is, in short, pure be- 
ing abstracted from all matter, and therefore only 
negatively defined as without parts or magnitude, 
impassable, invariable, and eternal. But whilst his 
system included no Providence, it has the merit of 
excluding the operation of chance and accident. 
These, he observes, are not capable of being causes 
of any thing ; they are merely descriptions of what 
takes place contrary to some presupposed design, or 
some tendency in nature. 
His theory of the soul or living principle, is more 
rational than that of most ancient philosophers. In 
accordance with the system of his physics, he wisely 
avoids endeavouring to refer it to any particular class 
of material objects ; — explaining its nature as an in- 
stance of the union of the two principles, matter and 
form, in a common result. His definition thus main- 
tains the distinctness of body and soul as a combina- 
tion of two substances ; without, however, defining 
what the soul is in itself. From this view, it may be 
perceived to what extent he acknowledged the im- 
mortality of man. In so far as human nature is 
purely intellectual, he conceived it capable of exist- 
ing separately from matter, and in some sense di- 
vine ; but in so far as it consisted of passions and af- 
fections, he regarded it as mortal, and necessarily 
perishable with the body. As to the nature of that 
immortality which he thus attributes to the intellect, 
he makes no explanation ; speaking of it as a rheto- 
rician rather than with the precision of a philoso- 
