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352 Encyclopedia Metropolitana, their matter and form,or a substratum, a van, or a portion of the prima materia, and their combination of sensible pro perties, constituting an édos; and next, viewed in the light of ingredients for the dose, they were described under the same distinction, the leaves and stalks being the clan, and the preparation of the apothecary giving them the idea. Indeed, we sometimes speak, at this day, of the form of a medicine, the form of a disease, the form of a thought, and the form of an argument; having no reference to anything material, but only to certain qualities which seem characteristic and distinctive. As it was imagined by the Platonists, that Forms and Matter existed separately prior to their union in this crea tion, of which we human beings make a part, it was very natural that their philosophical enquiries should be directed to these objects, as distinct fields of investigation, and that their science should be accordingly divided into Ideal and Material, or as we have it in the Encyclopedia Metropoli tana, into Formal and Real. A glance at the Academical Questions of Cicero, will, however, do more to set forth clearly the meaning of the learned editor, than any remarks that can be made in our hurried way of philosophizing ; and it will be found that that celebrated admirer of the Academics and Peripatetics,—uui rebus congruentes, nominibus differe bant—after mentioning the four elements of nature, remarks that they all have for a basis subjectam omnibus MATERIEM quandam sine ulla specie, et carentum omni illa qualitate, ex qua (materie) omnia expressa et effecta sint (que tota omnia accipere pissit, omnibusque modis mutari atque ex emni parte coque etiam interire, non in nihilum, sed in suas partes qua infinite securi et dividi possint. This matter, before it was cloathed with qualities, was té doy xas avedero, inefficient and formless ;—whilst the forms had their separate existence secured in the safe depositary of the divine intelligence. ‘* Has rerum formas appellat Ideas ille non intelligendi solum, sed etiam dicendi grevessimus auctor et magister, Plato, easque gigni negat, et aut semper esse, ac ratione et intelligentia conti neri; cetera nasci, occidere, fluere, Jabi, nec diutius esse uno et eodem statu. Quidquid est igitur, de quo ratione et via dispr+ tetur, id est ad ultimam sin generis Formam speciemque redi gendum.” If we apply the principles now explained to the arrange ment adopted by the conductors of the new Encyclopedia, we shall find some difficulty, we fear, in making out a full
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British Critic
London, Middlesex, GB
Thu, Oct 01, 1818
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