ARTICLE XVII.

Concerning ETERNAL and IMMUTABLE MORALITY, by Ralph Cudworth, D. D. Formerly Mafter of Christ's College in Cambridge; with a Preface by the Right Reverend Father in God Edward Lord Bishop of Durham. Printed for James and John Knapton at the Crown in St. Paul's Church-yard. 1731.

WE fhall refume our Excellent Author,

and begin where we ftop'd in our fe

cond Extract:

NOTWITHSTANDING Dr. Cudworth fufficiently proved, that Senfe as Senfe is not Knowledge, yet he makes it ftill further appear by more particular Confiderations, with a full Explication and Demonstration from Plato.

1. Senfe having no active Principle of its own. to take Acquaintance with what it receives from without, it, muft needs be a Stranger to that which is altogether adventitious to it. For, fays he, to know or understand a thing, is nothing else but by fome inward anticipation of the Mind, that is Native and Domestick, and fo familiar to it to take acquaintance with it.

3

2. Senfe

2. Senfe is but the offering or prefenting of fome Object, and a paffive Perception grovelling in the Individuals, and is ftupidly fixed in the Material Form, for which Reafon, it never affirms or denies any thing of its Object. But to know or understand, is actively to comprehend a thing by fome abftract, free, and univerfal Reafonings, being that higher station of the Mind, from whence looking down upon individual Things, it has a commanding view of them, and as it were a priori comprehends or knows them.

3. Senfe doth not penetrate into the Profun dity or inward Effence of a Corporeal Substance, being but a flight and fuperficial Perception of the outside and accidentals of it. For a Body may be changed as to all the feveral Senfes, and remain really the fame that it was before. Wherefore though Men are commonly faid to know Things when they fee and feel them, yet in Truth by their bodily Senfes they perceive nothing but their outfides and external Endow

ments.

4. The Knowledge and Intellection doth read inward Characters written within it felf, and intellectually comprehend its Object within it felf, and is the fame with it. When the Effence of nothing is reached unto by the Senfes looking outward.

5. The fenfible Ideas of Things are but ume bratile and evanid Images of the fenfible Things, like Shadows projected from them, and fo a pofteriori. But Knowledge is a comprehenfion of a thing Proleptically, and as it were a priori. MARCH 1731.

N

But

XXIII. Remains of the late Reverend and Learned John Edwards, D. D.

XXIV. State of Learning.

AMSTERDAM.

ROTTERDAM.

LONDON.

p. 234

237

ib.

ib.

238

THE

THE

PRESENT STATE

OF THE

Republick of Letters.

For MARCH 1731.

ARTICLE XVI

An E'S SAY on the Vegetation of Plants.

TH

HERE is little doubt but the following Treatife, which has never till now appear'd in English, will meet with a favourable Reception, fince it not only comes from fo Eminent a Hand as Monfieur Mariotte of the Royal Academy of Sciences, but tends to improve a moft delightful and innocent Art, which has met with great Encouragement from Perfons of the firft Diftinction for Genius in the prefent Age.

MARCH 1731.

L

A Let

A Letter written to Monfieur Lantin, Counsellor of the Parliament of Burgundy, on the Subject of Plants.

You

OU defire, Sir, that I fhould acquaint you with my Sentiments upon the Subject of Plants; that is to fay, that I should explain to you what are the Elements or Principles of which they are compofed, after what manner they are nourished, and finally, what are the Caufes of their different Qualities, and of their Virtues, as well falutary as hurtful. But this is an undertaking which feems to me very difficult, and I fee fo many doubts and obfcurities in this Matter, that I dare not promise you that I fhall be able fufficiently to clear it up, or give you a better or more certain knowledge herein than that which you already have: What I have been able to learn as well by my own particular Experiments, as by thofe which I have feen made by others in the Laboratory of the Royal Aca demy of Sciences, is as follows.

My firft Hypothefis is, that there are feveral grofs and visible principles of Plants, as Water, Sulphur, or Oil, common Salt, Saltpetre, volatile or armoniac Salt, fome Earths, &c. and that thefe grofs Principles are compofed themfelves of three or four Principles more fimple, which are generally joined together: For Example, Saltpetre has its Phlegm or infipid Water, its Spirit, its fixed Salt, &c. Common Salt has its Phlegm, its Spirit, its fixed Salt, &c. And we may believe, with a great deal of probability, that thefe more fimple Principles are moreover composed of fome Particles fpecifically

different