any certain conclusion. It is probable, from the practical character of his mind, that he was unwilling to indulge in speculations on a question from the discussion of which he could arrive at no clear and accurate knowledge. It is not often that we meet with a more complete example of what the logicians call the petitio principii than the assertions of Warburton respecting the chapter we have attempted to discuss. Cudworth had declared it to be obscure, but, says the author of the Legation, u" had that excellent person re"flected on the general doctrine of the TO‘EN he "would have found the passage plain and easy." And he sums up his observations in that convenient form of words recommended by the ancient sophists and rhetoricians, to silence opposition by alarming the adversary into an idea that his dissent will be interpreted as a proof of ignorance: "The learned well know that the Intellectus

66

Agens of Aristotle was the very same with the "Anima Mundi of Plato and Pythagoras." Now, omitting all further inquiry into the correctness of Warburton's representations respecting Plato's creed, it may be sufficient to observe at present, that if the learned have acquired such satisfactory knowledge of the opinions entertained by the Sta

" Divine Legation, lib. iii. sect. 4. vol. ii. p. 112.

gyrite on the same subject, it must have been from other sources than his 'own writings.

X

That Aristotle believed in a Supreme Being, the original Mover of all things, enjoying perfect felicity, and the source of all good, may be abundantly proved; that, besides the Supreme Being, he maintained the existence also of y one intelligent Principle (notwithstanding his notion that all the spheres were animated essences) pervading the universe, may be inferred from some expressions in his metaphysical works, and from a direct assertion in his Politics. In addition to these, he appears to have considered Nature as a third and distinct cause, performing its functions subordinate to and dependent on the two former;

X

Φαμὲν δὲ τὸν θεὸν εἶναι ζῶον ἀΐδιον ἄριστον, ὥστε ζωὴ καὶ αἰὼν συνεχὴς καὶ ἀΐδιος ὑπάρχει τῷ θεῷ. Metaph. lib. xiv. cap. 7.

Ἡ ἀρχὴ καὶ τὸ πρῶτον τῶν ὄντων ἀκίνητον καὶ καθ ̓ αὐτό. Ibid. cap. 8.

Εἰ μὴ ἔσται παρὰ τὰ αἰσθητὰ ἄλλα, οὐκ ἔσται ἀρχὴ, καὶ τάξις, καὶ yevéσis. Ibid. cap. 10.

Ο θεὸς δοκεῖ τὸ αἴτιον πᾶσιν εἶναι καὶ ἀρχή τις. Ibid. lib. i. c. 2. Πάντα ἔχει τἀγαθὰ ὁ θεὸς καί ἐστιν αὐτάρκης. Magna Moralia, lib. ii. cap. 15.

ν Σχολῇ γὰρ ἄν ὁ θεὸς ἔχοι καλῶς καὶ ΠΑΣ Ο ἐξωτερικαὶ πράξεις παρὰ τὰς οἰκείας τὰς αὐτῶν.

ΚΟΣΜΟΣ, οἷς οὐκ εἰσὶν

Aristot. Politic. lib.

vii. cap. 3. Vide also Metaph. lib. xiv. cap. 8. de Cœlo, lib. ii.

cap. 3. Idem, lib. i. cap. 9.

2 Εκ τοιαύτης ἄρα ἀρχῆς ἤρτηται ὁ οὐρανὸς καὶ ἡ ΦΥΣΙΣ. Metaph. lib. xiv. cap. 7. Vide also Phys. lib. ii. cap. 1.

but he has by no means clearly or consistently explained the peculiar province of each, nor the relation which they bear to the human soul. Although therefore it may be allowed that he held the doctrine of the Anima Mundi, he does not seem to have taught it in the fulness of Plato's sense, who confounds it with the law of Nature, and gives a diffuse account of its creation, attributes, and operations. This view of his opinions is supported by the authority of a Eusebius and other fathers of the church, who triumphantly mention the discordance of these great teachers on the subject, as contrasted with the harmony of the inspired writers. It is well known also that the two philosophers were opposed to each other respecting the origin of the world itself: Plato believed that matter in disorder was eternal, Aristotle, that matter arranged, or the world, was eternal; a doctrine which he probably borrowed

b

a In Eusebius, Præparat. Evangel. lib. xv. cap. 12. where an extract is given from Porphyry containing an account of Plato's Anima Mundi, the following words occur: IIpòs ovdèv Toútwy ἡμῖν ̓Αριστοτέλης ὁμολογεῖ, οὐ γὰρ εἶναι τὴν φύσιν ψυχὴν καὶ τὰ περὶ γῆν ὑπὸ μιᾶς φύσεως διοικεῖσθαι, &c.

b De Cœlo, lib. i. cap. 1o. Idem, lib. ii. cap. 1. Cicero, Tusc. Quæst. lib. i. cap. 29. Eusebius, Præparat. Evangel. lib. xv. cap. 6, &c. It should be observed, in consulting Aristotle de Cœlo, that oupavòs is frequently used by him to signify the world it has the same sense also in Plato's Timæus.

:

I

from Ocellus Lucanus, who in this instance deserted the principles of his master Pythagoras, and almost all the more ancient writers.

TIMEUS.

It has been asserted that Plato never confounds the Soul of the universe with the one First Cause and Creator of all things. In illustration of this assertion it may not be uninteresting, however extravagant and little intelligible such a "rhapsody "rather than a philosophy" may be in itself, to give a short abstract of the creation of the world compressed from the Timæus. Having observed that it is difficult to discover the Maker and Father of all things, and when we have discovered him it is impossible to reveal him to all men; having laid down a necessary distinction between what is created and uncreated, and declared that the one is discerned by reason and intelligence, (νόησις,) the other by sensible perception, (αἴσθησις,) the author proceeds to give an account of creation in terms which he premises will be akin to the nature of the subjects treated of, where proba

• Vide an extract from Philo Judæus in Gale's Opusc. Mytholog. p. 501. ed. 1688.

d Εστιν οὖν δὴ κατ' ἐμὴν δόξαν πρῶτον διαιρετέον τάδε. τί τὸ ὂν ἀεὶ, γένεσιν δὲ οὐκ ἔχον, καὶ τί τὸ γιγνόμενον μὲν ἀεὶ, ἂν δὲ οὐδέποτε ; Bekker, pars iii. vol. ii. Timæus, p. 22.

bility not certainty is to be expected. In that flowing and beautiful language which is peculiar to him, as different from the compressed and simple style of the short composition by Timæus the Locrian as the ornamented Corinthian column from its Doric original, he explains in detail how the supreme Deity, influenced by the desire of diffusing his own goodness, out of disorder reduced to forder the fluctuating mass of matter, gave intelligence to the soul, united soul with body, till the whole material world arose into existence, an 8 animal endowed with life and intelligence through the providence of God. In the formation of this visible fabric after the model of the invisible archetype which was eternal in the divine Mind, the Creator first took fire and earth, and made the union of these two substances complete by the addition of a third called Analogia", or

e

• ̓Αγαθὸς ἦν, ἀγαθῷ δὲ οὐδεὶς περὶ οὐδενὸς οὐδέποτε ἐγγίγνεται φθόνος· τούτου δ ̓ ἐκτὸς ὢν πάντα ὅτι μάλιστα γενέσθαι ἐβουλήθη παραπλήσια avt. Timæus, p. 25.

ἡ Εἰς τάξιν αὐτὸ ἡγαγεν ἐκ τῆς ἀταξίας. Timæus, ibid.

8 Ζῶον ἔμψυχον ἔννουν τε τῇ ἀληθείᾳ διὰ τὴν τοῦ θεοῦ γενέσθαι πρός Valav. Timæus, p. 26.

h This Analogia appears to be the law of nature, like the apx Apporías, the law of harmonious arrangement; (Aristot. Polit. lib. i. cap. 3;) or that law so beautifully described by Hooker, to which all things in heaven and earth do homage: Δεσμῶν δὲ κάλλιστος ὃς ἂν αὐτὸν καὶ τὰ ξυνδούμενα ὅτι μάλιστα εν Toy. Timæus, p. 28. The principles on which Analogia per