The Improvement of Human Reason | Page 9

pretended to the same things: for Men are naturally pleas'd with such discourses, as give them a liberty to neglect their business, and withal promise them purity of Mind, and the attainment of strange degrees and proprieties. Now the most stupid Wretches in Nature may pretend to this, and have in their Mouths such false and deceitful expressions. And if any one denies what they say, they immediately tell you, that this Unbelief of yours proceeds from Learning and _Logick_: and that Learning is a Veil, and Logick labour of the brain, but that these things which they affirm, are discovered only inwardly then by the Light of the TRUTH. And this which they affirm, has spread it self through a great many Countries, and produc'd a great deal of Mischief." Thus far Algazali. _How exactly this answers the wild extravagancies of our Enthusiasts, let themselves judge. And withal I would have them from hence learn the Modesty not to pretend to be the first after the Apostles who had endeavour'd to turn Men from Darkness to LIGHT, since they see so many worthy Persons among the Mahometans gone before them_.]
[Footnote 9: Avenpace--This Author is oftentimes quoted by the Name of Ebn'olfayeg; _he was accounted a Philosopher. of great Ingenuity and Judgment_. Maimonides, in his Epistle to R. Samuel Aben Tybbon, gives him a great Character. Abu'l Hasen Ali, _who collected all his Works, and reduced them into One Volume, prefers him before all the Mahometan Philosophers whatsoever. He was famous for his Poetry as well as Philosophy; he died young, being prison'd at_ Fez, in the Year of the Hegira 533. _i.e. of Christ_, 1138, or 39, others in the Year 525, which answers to 1131. Most of his Works are imperfect. See Dr. _Pocock's Elenchus Scriptorum prefix'd to the Arabick Edition of this Book_.]
[Footnote 10: _Tho' this instance will serve to explain the meaning of the Author, yet 'tis very improper, because 'tis utterly impossible to give a Man that is born Blind, the least notion or idea of Light or Colours_.]
[Footnote 11: _The Hanifitick Sect,_ and the Mahometan Religion,--_That is, not only the_ Hanifitick _Sect, but even the_ Mahometan _Religion too, of which that Sect is a Branch, does forbid the over curious enquiring into these abstruse Matters. This Sect was very early among the_ Mahometans, for it had its Name from Abu Hanifah Al Nooman, _who was born,in the 80 year of_ Hegira, or according to others in the 70. _I must confer, that it seems something odd, that he should mention that Sect first, and then the_ Mahometan _Religion which includes it, and if it had not been for the word_ Asshariyato, _which, if I mistake not, is never us'd to express any particular Sect, but signifies a Religion, or Law of God, I should have understood those Words of the Sect of_ Mahomet Ebn Edris Asshaphiensis. _See Dr._ Pocock _'s Specimen_ p. 295. Or else the Hanifitick Sect and the Mahometan _Religion may signifie the same thing, because_ Abraham, _(whose Religion the_ Mahometans _pretend to follow) is called in the_ Alcoran Hanif. _Dr._ Sike.]
[Footnote 12: Alpharabius,--_Without Exception, the greatest of all the_ Mahometan _Philosophers, reckon'd by some very near equal to_ Aristotle himself. Maimonides, _in the Epistle which I just now mention'd, commends him highly; and tho' he allows_ Avicenna _a great share of Learning, and_ Acumen; yet be prefers Alpharabius _before him. Nay_, Avicenna _himself confesses, that when he had read over_ Aristotle's _Metaphysicks forty times, and gotten them by heart; that he never understood them till he happened upon_ Alpharabius_'s Exposition of them. He wrote Books of Rhetorick, Musick, Logick, and all parts of Philosophy; and his Writings have been much esteemed; not only by_ Mahometans but Jews and Christians _too. He was a Person of singular Abstinence and Continence,and Despiser of the things of this World. He is call'd_ Alpharabius from Farab, _the place of bis Birth, which according to_ Abulpheda _(who reckons his Longitude not from the Fortunate Islands, but from the extremity of the Western Continent of_ Africa) _bar_88 deg. 30 min. of Longitude and 44 deg. _of Northern Latitude. He died at_ Damascus the Year of the Hegira 339, _that is, about the Year of Christ 950, when he was about fourscore Years Old_.]
[Footnote 13: The Spanish Philosophers.--This is not to be understood of any Christians in Spain, _but Mahometans; for the Moors Conquer'd a great part of_ Spain in the Ninety Fifth Year of the Hegira, _which answers partly to the Year of our Lord 710. Afterwards, as Learning grew up amongst the Eastern Mahometans, it increased proportionally among the Western too, and they had a great many Learned Men in_ Toledo _and other Places. The Author of this Book was a_, Spaniard, as appears from an