This recalls a sublime thought of Spinosa. Every true virtue is a part of that love, with which God loveth himself.
{Footnote 1: Communicated by Mr. Wordsworth.—Ed.}
{Footnote 2: A mistake as to Ænesidemus, who lived in the age of Augustus—Ed.}
NOTES ON SIR THOMAS BROWNE'S GARDEN OF CYRUS,
OR THE QUINCUNCIAL, ETC. PLANTATIONS OF THE ANCIENTS, ETC.
Ch. III.
That bodies are first spirits, Paracelsus could affirm, &c.
Effects purely relative from properties merely comparative, such as edge, point, grater, &c. are not proper qualities: for they are indifferently producible 'ab extra', by grinding, &c., and 'ab intra', from growth. In the latter instance, they suppose qualities as their antecedents. Now, therefore, since qualities cannot proceed from quantity, but quantity from quality,—and as matter opposed to spirit is shape by modification of extension, or pure quantity,—Paracelsus's 'dictum' is defensible.