or of producing a Thing into Being no Part of which exifted before; we Endeavour to conceive it after the best manner we can, by the Power of a Man in making fomething out of Pre-exiftent Materials. Thus we form a Conception even of Eternity itfelf from Time, which is measured by the Motion of the Heavenly Bodies; and from the Duration of things material. So likewife by enlarging the Idea we have of Space and Extenfion, the Mind forms to itself the beft pofitive Conception of Infinity it is capable of; and all the Notion of it we have beyond this, is only a Negotiation of any Stop or Boundary. Nay when we attempt to form any Simple Idea of God himself, it is by no other than that of Light, or the Glory of the Sun. For this reafon we naturaly fall into that way of speaking of things immaterial, and whereof we can have no direct Perception or proper Idea, in the very fame Style and Language we speak of Ourselves and other things of this World; or elfe exprefs them in Terms purely Negative, fuch as Infinite, Immaterial, Immortal, Incomprehenfible, and fuch like.

FOR the fame Reafon it is, as I have met it well obferved, that we express the purest Operations of the Intellect by Terms borrowed from Sensation, Animi ipfius Functiones vocibus que a rebus corporeis funt tranflata defignamus; quod nimirum res apprehendat, quod difcurrat, &c. As we fay in English, that the Mind Appre

bends

hends or Takes a thing, that it Runs over it, and fuch like: Because we have no Ideas of thofe Operations; and therefore when we form the most Abstracted Conceptions we can of them, it is not to be done exclufively of thofe Objects which are Thought of or Willed; in the most refined Compofition of which Objects, there will always be found a Mixture of fenfitive Ideas or a Dependence upon them. And thus likewife all the Conceptions we have of the particular Affections and Paffions of the Soul of Man, are in fome Measure made up out of Ideas of Senfation. We cannot form any Notions of them exclufive of the Objects which occafion them, and of their different Manner of affecing the Body, by which they become Visible in the Lineaments of the Face, or the outward Deportment of the Perfon: And by joining fuch Ideas to a Confciousness of Pleasure and Pain in the Mind, we form a Complex Notion of each Paffion. Thus we partly conceive Joy and Gladness by the sparkling of the Eyes and dilating of the Countenance; Sorrow by a down Look and a Contraction of all our Features; and Anger by the Distortion of them. There is a peculiar Look of Envy, another of Shame, and another of Despair. Let any Man try to form an Idea or Conception of any particular Paffion abftractedly from all External Things which are its Objects, and from all Effects of it on the Body; and he will foon perceive what a Dependence it has on Ideas of Senfe, and what Cc 3

a Portion

a Portion of them must be taken into the Account. In fhort whilft the Spirit is in Conjunction with the Body, if you remove from it all Ideas of Senfation, the whole Superftructure of Knowledge Human and Divine falls to the Ground; the Intellect could then have no Thought, having nothing left to think of: Nay tho' at the fame time we fhould fuppofe the Exiftence of Myriads of Immaterial Beings; fince nothing is plainer, than that it could have no direct and proper Idea of them.

WHEN thefe Impreffions which we are by God and Nature difpofed to receive from outward Objects, are imperceptibly conveyed thro' the Organs of Senfation inwardly to the Imagination; to be there repofited and ftored up as the firft Groundwork and grofs unwrought Materials, of all Knowledge, whether of things Material or immaterial; then it is that they, obtain the Name of Ideas: Which are ever more clear, and diftinct, and permanent according to the present Difpofition of the Organ of Senfation; the juft Distance of the Object; the Strength of the Impreffion made upon the Sense; the frequent Repetition of that Impreffion; and the Difpofition of the Medium. It is called the Imagination from the Images of external Objects lodged in it, in the fame confused and diforderly manner they are tranfmitted from the Senfes; and Senfus Communis, because it is the inward common Receptacle of all the outward

Impreffions

Impreffions made upon them. This is a Faculty in Man, as well as Brutes, purely Paffive; and differs from Memory in that it is, more diftinctly fpeaking, the Storehouse or Repofitory; but Memory regards rather the Furniture or vaft Variety of Ideas themselves, lodged there for the use of the pure Intellect; and is not a Diftinct Faculty from the Intellect, as the Imagination realy is; but an Ability in it to Revive again and bring into View any Ideas or Notions wherewith the Imagination has been once impregnated, without the repeated Prefence of the Objects or Occasions which first excited them. When we fay a Man hath a lively or working Imagination, it is but a miftaken and vulgar way of expreffing the more dexterous and fprightly Operations of the Intellect upon the Ideas That is ftored with: And confifts particularly in a quick and ready Comparison of them with one another; and placing them together in fuch a Light, as that they fhall mutualy reflect a Beauty and Luftre from one to the other, and by that means produce a Surprize and Pleasure in the Mind.

THO' all hitherto is not properly Knowledge, but only what is common to us with Brutes; yet it is an immenfe Fund of Materials laid in for the Imployment of the Mind. The Ideas which the Imagination is capable of containing are not within the Power of Number; efpecialy fince the great increase of Cc 4 them

them by Telescopes and magnifying Glaffes: It is a Faculty wide and extenfive as that Syftem including the fix'd Stars; aud is of Čapacity enough to take in Ideas from all the Objects of the whole vifible Creation.

CHA P. III.

The fimple Apprehenfion of the Intellect, or its View of thofe Ideas.

HE next Advance in the Order of Na

THE

ture is to what is truly and properly Knowledge; and that is a bare Contemplation or Simple View by the pure Intellect of thofe Ideas lodged in the Storehoufe of the Imagination; in the very fame Order and Condition they were tranfmitted from the Senses: Without any Tranfpofition or Disturbance of their Situation, and without any Comparison, Composition or Divifion, Enlargement or Diminution; without any Change or Alteration of them whatsoever; and without any Judgment, or Remark, or Obfervation, which may be formed into an affirmative or negative Propofition. By the Pure Intellect I do not mean the Pure Spirit or immaterial Principle in our Compofition, in Diftinction from all that is Material in us: But the Spirit in effential Union with the Body; and particularly with thofe animal Spirits, and imperceptible exquifite Fibres of the Brain, which are the

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