fons of both faculties, whofe choiceft dictates are collected by Stobæus; Plato and his scholars, Ariftotle, and after him Porphyry and all his other difciples; Pythagoras and his, efpecially Hierocles. All the old Academicks and Stoics within the Roman fchools: more pleasure I fay, in reading these, than the triflings of many of the later Schoolmen, who promoted the petty intereft of a family, or an unlearned opinion with great earneftnefs, but added nothing to Chriftianity, but trouble, fcruple and vexation. - JEREMY TAYLOR.

Opiates.

LEASANT retrofpections, eafy thoughts, and comfortable prefages, are admirable opiates. They help to affuage the anguish and difarm the diftemper, and almost make a man despise his mifery.-JEREMY COLLIER. 2. SOME fly to atheism as an opiate, to ftill those frightening apprehenfions of a future ftate of rewards and punishment, by

inducing a dulness and lethargy of mind, rather than to make use of that native and falutary medicine a hearty repentance. BENTLEY.

Opinion.

PINION is a light, vain, crude and imperfect thing, fettled in the imagination, but never arriving at the understanding, there to obtain

the tincture of Reafon.-BEN JONSON.

Origin of Mahometanifm.

HEN the Religion formerly received is rent by difcords, and when the Holinefs of Profeffors of Religion is decayed and full of scandal, and withal, the times be ftupid, ignorant and barbarous, you may doubt the fpringing up of a new fect; if then also there fhould arife any extravagant and ftrange spirit, to make himself author thereof; all which held when MAHOMET published his law. LORD BACON.

Origin of the Mind.

HE mind is Heaven-born and comes immediately out of the hands of GOD; fo that to speak

properly, we are nearer related to the Supreme Being than to father and mother. Nemo eft tam Pater, fays Tertullian. -JEREMY COLLier.

2. THE Mind being also used for the foul, giving life, is attributed abfolutely to madmen, when we fay they are of a distracted mind, instead of a broken understanding; which word, mind, we use alfo for opinion, as, I am not of this or that mind; and sometimes for men's conditions or virtues; as, he is of an honest mind, or, a man of a just mind; fometimes for affection, as, I do this for my mind's fake; sometimes for the knowledge of principles which we have, without difcourfe; oftentimes for Spirits, Angels and Intelligences. But when it is used in the proper fignification, including both the understanding agent and paffible, it is described to be a pure, fimple, fubftantial act, not de

pending upon matter, but having relation to that which is intelligible, as to its first object, or more at large, thus; a part or particle of the foul, whereby it doth understand, not depending upon matter, nor needing any organ, free from paffion coming from without, and apt to be diffevered, as eternal, from that which is mortal. - SIR WALTER RA

LEIGH.

Origin of Power.

OME philofophers have placed the origin of Power, in the Admiration, either of furpaffing form, great valour or fuperior underftanding.-SIR WILLIAM DAVENant.

Perfection.

HERE is not one grain in the Universe, either too much or too little, nothing to be added, nothing to be fpared: nor fo much as any

one particle of it, that mankind may not be

either the better or the worse for, according as it is applied.-L'ESTRANGE.

2. MAN doth feek a triple perfection; first a fenfual, confifting in those things which very life itself requireth, either as neceffary fupplements or as ornaments thereof: then an intellectual, confifting in those things which none underneath man is capable of; laftly, a spiritual and divine, confifting in those things whereby we tend by fupernatural means here, but cannot here attain.—HOOKER.

3. GOD, though he be omnipotent, cannot make any created being abfolutely perfect; for what is abfolutely perfect, must necesfarily be felf-existent. But it is included in the very notion of a creature, as fuch, not to exift of itself, but of God. An absolutely perfect creature therefore implies a contradiction; for it would be of itself and not of itself at the fame time. Abfolute perfection therefore is peculiar to God, and should he communicate his own peculiar perfection to another, that other would be God. Imperfection must therefore be tolerated in creatures, notwithstanding the Divine Omnipo