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457 the four first Books are taken up with reprefent Perfecutus ing the different Species; and in the five laft heeft Ariftoexamines their various Ways of Multiplication: mantium He has enrich'd this whole Work, with a vaft omnium Number of Experiments, and curious Difquifi- ortus, vi tions; among which, upon a clofer View, we dus, figu may perhaps, obferve the firft Lines of all theras, Cic. de Fin. 5. famous Discoveries fo much boafted of by mo dern Philofophy. I forbear to speak of his Book of Colours, his Treatife of Physiognomy, his mechanick Questions, his Problems, his Books of Plants, his two Books of Generation and Corruption, his Book de Mundo, compos'd

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for the Ufe of Alexander the Great, together Naturam with many other Pieces, in which he has hand- & Peripaled all Manner of Subjects, and explain'd the teticis fic Reason of all Things from the greatest to the investigaleaft, as Diogenes Laertius remarks. And this tam ut obliges me to say in Conclufion, that Ariftotle's cælo, ternatural Doctrine is the most ample and ex-ra, maritensive that ever appear'd in the World; no- que præthing having efcap'd fo vaft a Genius, which termiffa ftretch'd it felf to the univerfal Compass offit Cic. Beings.

VI.

This is what may be offer'd on the favourable Side, as to the natural Philofophy of Ariftotle: Let us now confider what may be alledg'd against it, or what there is in it that may seem chiefly liable to Cenfure. The eight Books of Phyficks appear confus'd, nor are they carried on with a natural Order and Dependance. The Materia prima, and the bringing of Forms out of this Matter, are both extreamly difficult to our Apprehenfion. The whole Treatife of Motion is dark and abstracted: The Arguments alledged to prove the Eternity of Motion, through the Course of the eighth Book, are unintelligi

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ble;

ibid.

ble; and that whole Book is of too metaphyfical a Character. Nor are this Philofopher's Difcourfes of Time and Place, peculiar to the Subject of Phyficks, fince they agree likewife to spiritual Subftances. His Doctrine of Time is borrow'd from Archytas, as that of Motion, is from Ocellus, and that concerning a Vacuum, from Timaus, as Patricius has informd us. What he advances in his first two Books de Calo, as alfo in his Explication of Comets, of the Rainbow, and other Meteors, is by no means found true in all its Circumstances: But we ought to except his fourth Book of Meteors, which feems to be compiled with greater Accuracy than the reft. The Situation, that in his third Book de Calo, he gives the Element of Fire, under the Concave of the Moon, agreeably to the Opinion of Leucippus and Democritus, has no Manner of Foundation: Pythagoras was of quite another Judgment in this Matter. In his fecond Book of Meteors, he pretends, that the Earth is unhabitable under the Equinox, which is contradicted by Experience. But, what he delivers, as to the Eternity of the World,how false foever, may feem the most pardonable Mistake. He conceiv'd all Things to proceed from God in the Way of neceffary Emanation, as the Light which we fee darted from the Sun is coæval with the Solar Body. This feems to afford us an Advantage against the Heresy of the Arians, who would not acknowledge the Divine Word, to be Principium a Principio, or coeternal with the Father. Thus Ariftotle's Error may be of Service against these Corruptions, who perhaps had not fallen into fuch an Extravagance, if they had hearken'd to the Reafonings of this Philofopher, though by himself mifapplied. Pawisius a Philofopher of Venice, in his Difcuffion

of

of the Ariftotelian Doctrine, Ramus in his School of Phyficks, and Gaffendus in his Obfervations against the Peripateticks, report a great Number of Inftances, in which Ariftotle appears to have mistaken the Subject of Nature; efpecially about the Order and Construction of the heavenly Bodies, the History of Animals, the Anatomy of human Body, &c. I freely grant that the modern Philofophy, having been fo far improv'd by Experiments of all Kinds, and fo much affifted by the Benefit of newly invented Instruments, may have out-done Ariftotle's Performance in many Particulars which Time alone could clear; and that the Opinions of the ancient Philofophers concerning the Heaven,and heavenly Bodies, recited by Plutarch in the fe cond Tome of his Works, have been found, for the most part, to be falfe, by the Inftruments and Obfervations of later Discoveries. To be brief, I acknowledge that Ariftotle is lefs demonftrative in his Phyficks, than in the other Parts of his Philofophy; that his Method is lefs accurate, and his whole Character and Conduct lefs accomplish'd. But we ought to impute this Default, rather to the Incapacity of the Matter, than to the Unskilfulness of the Workman His Genius is always the fame, and maintains an equal Force in all its Reasonings and Reflections. But Reason, how foever extenfive and univerfal it may feem, has its Bounds in certain Subjects, and if it tranfgrefs thofe Bounds, it ventures too far, and is in Danger of losing it felf.

VII.

As for the Judgment that we may make of all the other Naturalifts, ancient or modern, it is as follows. We have no Remains of what the Egyp tians perform'd in this Kind, except their Obfer vations

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Ex Jof. Scalig.

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vations on the Heavens, and heavenly Bodies which they were better acquainted with than other Nations, their Genius carrying them to Aftrology and Prognofticks. Simplician tells us, that Callifthenes, at the Requeft of his Father Ariftotle, fent into Greece the Obfervations that had been made by the Chaldeans, for almost Epift. ad two thousand Years before Alexander: And PorRhodom. phyry declares that he himself had seen these Amicos in Obfervations. What the Phoenicians and Æthiquibus eft ftudium, opians had written of Phyficks, is loft with the ad Graci- Books of Diodorus Siculus, from the Fifth to the am mitto, Eleventh. But the Greeks, who were Masters ad Græcos of all other Sciences, were fo efpecially of this, ire jubeo, in which they have written beyond the rest of fontibus the World; and may be ftyl'd the first Aupotius thors of natural Difcoveries. For Plutarch, in bauriant, his Life of Nicias, informs us, that Anaxagoquam ri- ras, and the other Ionick Philofophers of those fedentur. Days, were purely Naturalifts. The Affyrians, Cic. Acad properly fpeaking, knew no more than the first Qu. 1. Elements of Aftronomy, by their inaccurate Obfervations, made without the Help of Inftruments for they had no other Way of meafuring the Cæleftial Motions, but by Water-dials. Among the Philofophers of Greece, Pythagoras and Ocellus, Archytas and Timaus, Difciples to the latter, Hippocrates, Leucippus and Democritus, Nobiliff applied themfelves to the Study of Nature, and mus Pbilo adorn'd it with more Succefs than others. Demofophorum Democri- critus appears to have been a very eminent Naturalift. Aulus Gellius gives him a wonderful Encopræter a- mium. Empedocles compos'd a Syftem of Phylios vene- ficks in Verfe, according to Pythagoras's Princirandus, ples, which Lucretius fpeaks of as a Prodigy, and antiquâ which is likewife mention'd by Ariftotle, and præditus. 1. 10. C. 12.

vulos con

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Ex materia in fe omnia recipiente mundum fadum effe cenfet Plato. Cic. Qu. Acad. 4.

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Diogenes

Diogenes Laertius. Plato has fcarce ever written any Thing on this Subject, but what he borrow'd from the Pythagoreans. The Opinion of Democritus, which had a great Number of Followers, before and after Ariftotle, and which has been revived by the modern Naturalifts, of the greateft Reputation, feems to offer fomewhat more real and fenfible by the Doctrine of Atoms, than Ariftotle has done in his Matter, Form, and Privation. But befides that he establishes Matter without a Mover, and Art without an Artificer, his Doctrine which is the fame with that of Leucippus, upon a nearer View betrays fo many Abfurdities, that it cannot easily pass it felf upon us. Socrates finding this Part of Philofophy to be utterly fpoil'd and corrupted by the falfe Reafonings of the Sophifts, applied himself entirely to Morals. And therefore when introduced by Plato, as fpeaking on the Subject of Nature, he does not always fpeak his own Senfe. Theophraftus's Book of Plants is one of the finest in the Judg. ter loquenatural Treatifes of all Antiquity, in the Judgment of Julius Scaliger, who has commented batur aton it. Zeno the Prince of the Stoicks, has no- que omthing particular in his Phyficks, only that he nes, fenti ufes a different Expreffion, from others, though quod cahe is the fame in Opinion. He establishes two teri. Principles, God and Matter: He fuppofes a Cic. de Soul of the World, diffus'd through all its Parts, Fin. 4. and informing it, as one great Animal. Lipfius Inter Zehas given us an Abridgement of this Philofopher's PeripatePhyficks, as well as of his Ethicks. Epicurus ticos nihas nothing fix'd and certain in his Doctrine of hil inteNature; but is perpetually upon the Ramble. Tesse praCicero obferves of him, that as he embraced De

tatem. Ibid.

Zeno ali

ebat idem

nonem &

ter verbo

rum novi

In phyficis quibus maximè gloriatur Epicurus, totus alienus eft. Cic.

de Fin. 4.

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