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to natural causes fubordinate to, and directed still by a divine; except fome corporealifts and mechanics, who vainly pretended to make a world without a God. The hidden force that unites, adjusts, and causeth all things to hang together, and move in harmony, which Orpheus and Epedocles ftyled love; this principle of union is no blind principle, but acts with intellect. This divine love and intellect are not themselves obvious to our view, or otherwife difcerned than in their effects. Intellect enlightens, Love connects, and the fovereign Good attracts all things.

260. All things are made for the fupreme good, all things tend to that end: and we may be faid to account for a thing, when we fhew that it is fo beft. In the Phædon, Socrates declares it to be his opinion, that he, who fuppofed all things to have been difpofed and ordered by a mind (c), fhould not pretend to affign any other caufe of them. He blames phyfiologers for attempting to account for phænomena, particularly for gravity and cohesion, by vortexes and æther, overlooking the τὸ ἀγαθὸν and τὸ δέον, the frongelt bond and cement which holds together all the parts of the univerfe, and not difcerning the cause it self from thole things which only attend it.

261. As in the microcofm, the conftant regular tenor of the motions of the vifcera and contained juices doth not hinder particular voluntary motions to be impreffed by the mind on the animal spirit; even fo in the mundane fyftem, the fteddy obfervance of certain laws of nature, in the groffer maffes and more confpicuous motions, doth not hinder, but a voluntary agent may fometimes communicate particular impreffions to the fine ætherial medium, (c) 154, 160.

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which in the world answers the animal fpirit in man. Which two (if they are two) although invifible and inconceivably small, yet feem the real latent fprings, whereby all the parts of this vifible world are moved; albeit they are not to be regarded as a true caufe, but only an inftrument of motion; and the inftrument not as a help to the creator, but only as a fign to the creature.

262. Plotinus fuppofeth that the foul of the universe is not the original caufe or author of the fpecies, but receives them from intellect, the true principle of order and diftinction, the fource and giver of forms. Others confider the vegetative foul only as fome lower faculty of a higher foul, which animates the fiery ætherial spirit (d). As for the blots and defects which appear in the course of this world, which fome have thought to proceed from a fatality or neceffity in nature, and others from an evil principle, that fame philofopher obferves, that it may be the governing reafon produceth and ordaineth all those things; and, not intending that all parts fhould be equally good, maketh fome worfe than others by defign, as all parts in an animal are not eyes: And in a city, comedy, or picture, all ranks, characters, and colours are not equal or like; even so exceffes, defects, and contrary qualities, confpire to the beauty and harmony of the world.

263. It cannot be denied, that with refpect to the universe of things, we in this mortal ftate are like men educated in Plato's cave, looking on fhadows with our backs turned to the light. But though our light be dim, and our fituation bad, yet if the best use be made of both, perhaps fomething may be seen. Proclus, in his commentary on the theology of Plato, obferves there are two (d) 178,

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forts of philofophers. The one placed body first in the order of beings, and made the faculty of thinking depend thereupon, fuppofing that the principles of all things are corporeal: that body moft really or principally exifts, and all other things in a fecondary fenfe, and by virtue of that. Others, making all corporeal things to be dependent upon foul or mind, think this to exift in the first place and primary fenfe, and the being of bodies to be altogether derived from, and presuppose that of the mind.

264. Senfe and experience acquaint us, with the courfe and analogy of appearances or natural effects. Thought, reafon, intellect, introduce us into the knowledge of their caufes. Senfible appearances, though of a flowing, unftable, and uncertain nature, yet having first occupied the mind, they do by an carly prevention, render the after task of thought more difficult and as they amufe the eyes and ears, and are more fuited to vulgar ufes and the mechanic arts of life, they eafily obtain a preference, in the opinion of moft men, to thofe fuperior principles, which are the later growth of the humane mind arrived to maturity and perfection, but, not affecting the corporeal fenfe, are thought to be fo far deficient in point of solidity and reality, fenfible and real to common apprehenfions being the fame thing. Although it be certain, that the principles of science are neither objects of fenfe nor imagination; and that intellect and reafon are alone the fure guides to truth.

265. The fuccessful curiofity of the prefent age, in arts and experiments and new fyftems, is apt to elate men, and make them overlook the ancients. But notwithstanding that the encouragement and purfe of princes, and the united endeavours of great focieties in thefe later ages, have extended experi

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mental and mechanical knowledge very far, yet it must be owned, that the ancients too were not ignorant of many things (e), as well in phyfics as metaphyfics, which perhaps are more generally, though not firft known in thefe modern times.

266. The Pythagoreans and Platonists had a notion of the true fyftem of the world. They allowed of mechanical principles, but actuated by foul or mind: they diftinguished the primary qualities in bodies from the fecondary, making the former to be phyfical caufes, and they understood phyfical caufes in a right fenfe: they faw that a mind infinite in power, unextended, invifible, immortal, governed, connected and contained all things: they faw there was no fuch thing as real abfolute fpace: that mind, foul or fpirit, truly and really exifts: that bodies exift only in a fecondary and dependent fenfe that the foul is the place of forms: that the fenfible qualities are to be regarded as acts only in the caufe, and as paffions in us: they accurately confidered the differences of intellect, rational foul, and fenfitive foul, with their diftinct acts of intellection, reafoning, and fenfation, points wherein the Cartefians and their followers, who confider fenfation as a mode of thinking, feem to have failed. They knew there was a fubtil æther pervading the whole mafs of corporeal beings, and which was itself actually moved and directed by a mind and that phyfical caufes were only inftruments, or rather marks and figns.

267. Those ancient philofophers understood the generation of animals to confift, in the unfolding and diftending of the minute imperceptible parts of pre-exifting animalcules, which paffeth for a modern difcovery: this they took for the work of nature, but (166, 167, 168, 241, 242, Er.

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nature animate and intelligent (f): they understood that all things were alive and in motion: they fuppofed a concord and difcord, union and difunion in particles, fome attracting, others repelling each other and that thofe attractions and repulfions, fo various, regular, and useful, could not be accounted for, but by an intelligence prefiding and directing all particular motions, for the confervation and benefit of the whole.

268. The Ægyptians, who imperfonated nature, had made her a diftinct principle, and even deified her under the name of Ifis. But Ofiris was understood to be mind or reafon, chief and fovereign of all. Ofiris, if we may believe Plutarch, was the firft, pure, unmixed and holy principle, not difcernible by the lower faculties; a glympfe whereof like lightening darting forth, irradiates the underftanding; with regard to which Plutarch adds, that Plato and Ariftotle termed one part of philofophy πoxov; to wit, when having foared above common mixed objects, and got beyond the precincts of fenfe and opinion, they arrive to contemplate the first and most fimple being, free from all matter and compofition. This is that soia Tws soα of Plato, which employeth mind alone; which alone governs the world, and the foul is that which immediately informs and animates nature.

269. Although the Ægyptians did fymbolically represent the fupreme divinity fitting on a lotus, and that gefture has been interpreted to fignify the most holy and venerable being to be utterly at reft repofing within himfelf; yet, for any thing that appears, this gefture might denote dignity as well as repofe. And it cannot be denied, that Jamblicus, fo knowing in the Ægyptian notions,

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