The Improvement of Human Reason - Exhibited in the Life of Hai Ebn Yokdhan by Ibn Tufail
page 62 of 141 (43%)
page 62 of 141 (43%)
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§ 49. Now he knew that every thing that was produc'd anew, must needs have some Producer. And from this Contemplation, there arose in his Mind a sort of Impression of the Maker of that Form, tho' his Notion of him as yet was general and indistinct. Then he paus'd on the examining of these Forms which he knew before, one by one, and found that they were produc'd anew, and that they must of necessity be beholden to some efficient Cause. Then he consider'd the Essences of Forms, and found that they were nothing else, but only a Disposition of _Body_ to produce such or such Actions. For instance, Water, when very much heated, is dispos'd to rise upwards, and that Disposition is its Form. For there is nothing present in this Motion, but _Body_, and some things which are observ'd to arise from it, which were not in it before (such as Qualities and Motions) and the Efficients which produce them. Now the fitness of Body for one Motion rather than another, is its _Disposition_ and _Form_. The same he concluded of all other Forms, and it appear'd to him, that those Actions which arose from them, were not in reality owing to them, but to the efficient Cause, who made use of these Forms to produce those Actions which are attributed to them, [_i.e_, the Forms]. Which Notion of his is exactly the same with what God's Apostle [_Mahomet_] says; _I am his Hearing by which he hears, and his Seeing by which he sees._ And in the _Alcoran; You did not kill them, but God kill'd them; when thou threwest the Darts, it was not thou that threwest them, but God_. § 50. Now, when he had attain'd thus far, so as to have a general and indistinct Motion of this _Agent_, he had a most earnest Desire to know him distinctly. And because he had not as yet withdrawn himself from the sensible World, he began to look for this _voluntary Agent_ among sensible Things; nor did he as yet know, whether it was one Agent or |
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