CHAPTER II. 323 Which is not of prittiary consideration ; this is called a property; sometimes indeed it goes toward making up the essence; espe- ciáll'y of à complex being, so far as we were acquainted with it ; sometimes it depends upon, and follows from the essence of it ; se volubility, or aptness to roll, is the property of a bowl, and is derived frdm its roundness. Mobility and figure or shape are properties of matter; and it is the property of a pious man to love his neighbour. An accidental mode or an accident, is such a mode as is not necessary to the being of a thing, for the subject may be without it, and yet, remain of the same nature that it was before ; or, it is that triode which may be separated or abolished from its subject ; sb smoothness, or roughness, blackness, or whiteness, motion or rest are the accidents of a bowl ; for these may be all changed, and yet the body remain a bowl still ; learning, justice, folly, sickness, health, are the accidents of a man ; motion, squareness, or any particular shape or size, are the accidents of body ; yet shape and size in general are essential triodes of it, for a betty must have some size or shape, nor can it be without them so hope, fear, wishing, assenting, and doubling, are accidents of the mind though thinking in general seems to be essential tò it. Tiere observe, that the name of accident has been oftentimes given by the old peripatetick philosophers to all modes, whether essential or accidental ; but the moderns confine this word acci- dent to the sense in which I have described it. MIere it should be noted also, that though the word property be limited sometimes in logical treatises to the secondary essential mode, yet it is used in common language to signify these four sorts of modes; of which some are essential, and some acci- dental. (1.) Such as belong to every subject of that kind, but not Only to those subjects. So yellow colour and ductility are pro- perties of gold, they belong to all gold, but not only to gold ;. for saffron is also yellow, and lead is ductile. (2.) Such as belong only to one kind of subject, but not to event subject of that kind. So learning, reading, and writing are properties of human nature ; they belong only to man, but not to all men. (3.) Such as belong to every subject of one kind, and only, to them, but not always. So speech or language is a property of man, for it belongs to all men, and to men only; but men are not always speaking. (4.) Such as belong to every subject of onekind, and to them Only andalways. So shape and divisibility are properties of body ; st) omniscience and omnipotence are properties of the divine na- ture.; for in this sense properties and attributes are the same, and except in logical treatises there is scarce any distinction made x2
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