Now he that takes the pains to compare his _Alshepha_ with what
_Aristotle_ has written, will find they agree in most things, tho' in
the _Alshepha_ there are a great many things which are not extant in any
of those pieces which we have of _Aristotle_. But if the Reader, take
the literal Sense only, either of the _Alshepha_ or _Aristotle_, with,
out penetrating into the hidden Sense, he will never attain to
perfection, as _Avicenna_ himself observes in the _Alshepha_.

As for _Algazâli_[14], he often contradicts himself, denying in one
place what he affirm'd in another. He taxes the Philosophers with
_Heresy_[15] in his Book which he calls _Altehaphol_, i.e.
_Destruction_, because they deny the Resurrection of the Body, and hold
that Rewards and Punishments in a Future State belong to the Soul only.
Then in the beginning of his _Almizân_, i.e. _The Balance_, he affirms
positively, that this is the Doctrine of the _Suphians_[16], and that he
was convinc'd of the truth of it, after a great deal of Study and
Search. There are a great many such Contradictions as these interspers'd
in his Works; which he himself begs Pardon for in the end of his _Mizân
Alamal [The Ballance of Mens Actions]_; where he says, that there are
Three sorts of Opinions; 1. Such as are common to the Vulgar, and
agreeable to their Notions of things. 2. Such as we commonly make use of
in answering Questions propos'd to us. 3. Such private as a Man has to
himself, which none understand but those who think just as he does. And
then he adds, that tho' there were no more in what he had written than
only this, _viz_. That it made a Man doubt of those things which he had
imbib'd at first, and help'd him to remove the prejudices of Education,
that even that were sufficient; because, he that never doubts will never
weigh things aright, and he that does not do that will never see, hut
remain in Blindness and Confusion.