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Show ·So Simple Modes of Space. Book II. • d fora third when a Body is called when the Soul is called Sub~:~d; f~r three feve~al di(\inc:t !detZJ, they fo. If the name Subj/ance, 1 f< d'fiinCl: !deo.r or at leafito gtvcrhree would do well to make known t JOe f~ importanr'a Notion, the ConfudifiinCl: names to them, to prev~~fl'"follow from the promifcuous ufe of { 1on and Errors, that ~!If na~ f: ~rom being fufpeCl:ed to have three difo doubtful~ term; w uc liS 0 •: di(\inc:t li nification: And if they can fiinc:t, that tt has fcarce on; clefS bf' nee ~vhat hinders why another thus make three dtfhnCl: laeas o II "'a ' maynotmakeafourth~ ran into the Notion of Awdents' as a fmt of ~- '9· They who fir I to inhere tn were forced to find out real Beings, that neede~ fomct 1'fg Had th; poor Jndtan Phtlofophcr the word St~b/lanu, 1'! u~;l~ 1al~~n;,anted fomethmg to bear 11 up) bur (who tmagmed that t Je ar h oeded not to have been at the trouble thought of thiS word f,•b]lanc~, ea~d a Tortmfe to fupport his Elephant: to find an Elephant towu~lci'r~:;e done it effectually. And he that enThe word Subj/ance 0 ~ d n Anfwer from an lnd1an Philo-qui red, might ~:'h;,!:~~n ~~tl~~u~s f,~~w:ng what it is, is that which fup-fopher, That as we;ake It for a fuffictent Anfwe~, and good Deanne, pons the Earth • hi! f< h That Subj/ance wtthout knowmg what from our Europea~~ 0 op ~s, J, ts So that of Subj/ance, we have no it is, is that ':"luc upportsa c~~f~fed.obfcure one ofwha~ it does. . Idea of what It ts, buf only d M y do here an intelligent AmeriCan, §. 00• Wl~tever th:N~;ure :F ~~mgs wod!d fcarce take it for a fa tiswho enqutre mto.f d li to learn our' ArchiteCture, he fiJOuld be told, faCtory Account, 1 1 e m~g rted by a Bajis and a Bajis fomethmg that That a Pglar ~v~s a t •~goul~~e not tlank }1imfelf mocked, 10(\ead of fupporte . a ' ar. aunt as this'> And a Stranger to them would be taught, wtth (u~~::d~~ in the natur~ of Books, and t)Je thingJ they conve; y dhbefrhallyfhl ld be told that all learned Books conlified ot Paper and tame , 1 e ou ' · 1 · p per and Paper a Letters and that Letters wei e things 10 lertng mf I a . ' .I ld of , P I L n table way o ~avmg c car eru thing th~l~ld ort ~Ute~:~~ ;tl~e ~tin words lnbarentJa and Subjlanua, ~~~\~:oathe pl~i~Enghfhones tharanfwcr them,and were cllledStJCkmg; on and Vnder-proppmg, rheywoul;l better dtfcover to us t Je very grea f cl;arne@ there ISm the DoCtnne ot Su.hj/a~ce and Awde11ts, and I hew o wharufe they are in dcetdmg ofQ;Je(\tons m Plulpfophy. (I fi din- § 1 But 10 return to our Ideas of Space. If Body be not uppo _e od lim;: ,~hich I thmk no one w1ll affirm, I would ask, Whether 1fG 1 placed a Ma~ at the ;xtremtty of corporeal Beings, he could no~ fi~tc 1 hts Hand beyond Ius Body 1 If he could, then he _would put ts r~, where there was before Space without Body ; and 1f there he fpread l.ts fmgers there would fiill be Space between them without Body : {~ he could ;ot (\retch out Ius Hand, it mu(\ be becaufe of fame externa "r drance. (for we fuppofe him ahve, wtth fuch a power of movmg t 'r parts of Ius Body that he hath now, wluch is not in it felf impollible, ' God fo pleafod r~ have 11 ;) or at lea(\ it is notrimpoflible for God fo to move htm: And then I ask, Whether that wluch lunders hiS Hand fro~ moving outwards be Sub(\ance or Accident , Sometlung or Nothmg And wl1en they b'ave refolved that, they wtll be able to refolve the~~felves what that 1s wh1ch is or may be between two Bodtes at a dt(\an ' that 1~-not Body, has no Sohdtty. In the mean rime, the Argument 15 d: lea(\ as good, That where notlung hmders, (as beyond the utmo(\ boun of alll.lodtes ) a Body put 1010 morton may move on, as where there ts no- ' tlung Chap. XIII. Simple Modes of Space. thing between, there two Bodies mu(\necelfarily touch. For pure Space between, is fufficient to take away the oeceflity of mutual Conrad; but bare Space in the way, is not fufficient to flop Motion. The truth is, thefe Men mufieither own, that they think Body inlinite,though they are loth to fpeak it om, or elfc affirm, that Space is not Body. For I would f.1in meet with that thinking Man, that can, in his Thoughts, fer any bounds to .Space, more than he can to Duration ; or by dunking, hope to arrive at the end of either: And therefore if his Idea of Eternity be inlinite,fois his ldt•a of lmmenlity ; they are both finite or infinite alike. §. 21. Farther, thofc whoalfert the impollibility of Space cxi(\ingwithout /flatter, mufi not only make Body infinite,but mufi alfo deny a power in God to annihi!Jte any part of Matter. No one, I fuppofc, will deny, that God can pur an end to all motion that is in Matter , and fix all the Bodies of the Univerfe in a perfeCt quiet and refi, and continue them fo as long as he pleales. Whoever then will allow , that God can, during fuch a general refi, annihilate either this Book, or the Body of him that reads it, mu(\ nccelfarily admit the pollibility of a 1/acuum. For it is evi· dent, that the Space that was filled by the parts of the annihilated Body, will fiill remain, and be a Space without Body. for the circumambient Bodies being in perfeCt rc(\, are a Wall of Adamant, and in that !late make it a per fed impollibility for any other Body to get into that Space. And indeed the necelfary motion of one Particle of Matter, into the place from whence another Particle of Matter is removed, is but a confequence from the fuppolition of Plenitude; which will therefore need fame bet· ter proof, than a fuppofcd matter of fad:, . which Experiment can never ~ake out; our own clear and difiinet Ideas plainly fatisfyingus,that there 1s no necelfary connexion between Space and So/idity,Gnce we can conceive the one without the other. And thofe who difpute for or again(\ a Vacuum, do thereby confefs, they have di!lintt Ideas of Vacuum and Plenum, i. e. that they have an Idea ofExtenlion void of Solidity,though they deny its exi(\ence;or elfethey difpute abcut nothing at all. For they who fo much alter the lignification of IV ords, as to call Exttnjion Body , and confcquently make the whole Elfence of Body, to be nothing but pure Exrenfion without Solidity, mufi talk abfurdly, whenever they fpeakof Vacuum, fince it is impoffible for Ext en lion to be without Extenfion. For Vacuom, whether we affirm or deny its exifience, lignifies Space without Body, whofe very exifience no one can deny to be pollible, who will not make Matter infinite, and take from God a power to annihilote any Particle of it. §. u. But not to go Co far as beyond the utmofi bounds of Body in the Univcrfe,nor appeal to God's Omnipotenc)Otofind a 1/acuum,the motion of Bodies,that are in our view and neighbourhood,feem tome plain to evince it. for I dclire any one fo to devide a folid Body of any dimenlion he pleafes, ., to make it pollible for the folid Parts to move up and down freely every way, within the bounds of that Superficies, if there be not left in it a void fpace, as big as the lea!l part into which he has divided the faid folid Body. And ifw11ere the leafi Particle of the Body divided, isasbigasa Mufiardfeed, a void Space equal to the bulk of a Mufiard-feed, be requifite to make room for the free motion of the Parts of the divided Body, within the bounds of its Superficies, where the Particles of Matter are wo,ooo,ooo lefs than a Mufiard-feed, there mufi alfo be a fpace void offolid Matter, as big as Ioo,ooo,ooo part of a Mu!lard-feed; for if it hold in one,it will hold in the other, and fo on in injinitum. And let this void Sp•ce be as little as it will, itdefiroys the Hypothelis of Ple11it•tle. for if there can be a M Space 8t |
