Ockley, Simon (bap. 1679, d. 1720)

The Improvement of Human Reason Exhibited in the Life of Hai Ebn Yokdhan

London

Printed and Sold by Edm. Powell and J. Morphew

1708

"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."

§ 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.

Impressions

Searching in Project Gutenberg

At least 3 entries in ESTC (1708, 1711).

Ibn Tufail (Abu Bakr Muhammad Ibn Tufail al-Qasi), trans. Simon Ockley, The Improvement of Human Reason Exhibited in the Life of Hai Ebn Yokdhan: Written in Arabick above 500 Years ago, by Abu Jaafr Ebn Tophail. In which is demonstrated, By what Methods one may, by meer Light of Nature, attain the Knowledg of things Natural and Supernatural; more particularly the Knowledge of God and the Affairs of another Life. Illustrated with proper Figures. Newly Translated from the Original Arabick, A.M. Vicar of Swavesey in Cambridgeshire. With an Appendix, In which the Possibility of Man's attaining the True Knowledg of God, and Things necessary to Salvation, without Instruction, is briefly consider'd. (London: Printed and Sold by Edm. Powell and J. Morphew, 1708). <Link to Google Books><Link to ECCO>

Text from Project Gutenberg edition: http://www.gutenberg.org/files/16831/16831-h/20018-h.htm.

06/17/2013