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236 CHAPTER V.

Note 1, p. 47. Now, three modes of defining Vital Principle, &c.] There is here a want of conformity with other definitions of the Vital Principle, which points either to neglect on the part of copyists, or to want of early revision; for, in one place, Aristotle has the animate from the inanimate by "motion and sensibility," while in another he has conjoined with them immateriality; and here, also, he has three terms, but incorporeity, as if to approach nearer to the doctrines of his great preceptor, is substitued for sensibility.

Note 2, p. 47. This opinion has been adopted, &c.] The elements, and the parts assigned to them in the constitution of bodies, by the schools of antiquity, have been noticed in a former note; but the notion that, as like perceives like, the Vital Principle, being derived from the elements, must perceive each like, cannot account for the perception of compound bodies, unless, (which is an absurdity) it contain, essentially, all compounds. This is all very hypothetical, no doubt, but then it assumes that there are elements, and that elements combine, by affinity, in different proportions, to form different bodies; and, thus, the doctrine may be regarded as a faint outline of the matured theory of modern times.