332 AN ENQUIRY CONCERNING SPACE. nothing ; for it is one of the most fundamental axioms of science, that what has no being, can have no properties or powers ; but space seems to have powers and properties; it is long, broad and deep : Can there be any mere nothing that has three dimen- sions ? Space seems to have measurable distances contained in it, viz.' an inch, an ell, a mile, a league, a diameter of the earth, or a thousand such diameters. Is it possible thata mere nothing should reaoh to such an extent? It appears to have real capa- City, or a power to receive and contain bodies; now if this capa- city be not a mere nothing, one would conclude space must be something real and existing, which has such a real capacity. Besides, if two bodies were placed at twenty miles distance from each other, and all the universe besides were annihilated, would not this space be really twenty miles long ? and would not this space be called something, which is of such a length ? Or if space be not something, then there is nothing between these two bodies ; and must they not therefore lie close together, and touch one another, if there be nothing between them? Does not this plainly prove space to be something? Well, if space be any sort of something, it must either have its being only in our minds as a mere idea, or it must have an existence without sis. That it cannot be a mere idea of the mind, is proved by Dr. Clarke, because no ideas of space can possibly be framed greater than finite ; yet reason shews that space must be infinite. See his Letters to Leibnitz. To which I might add, space seems to have such an exis= tents as it bath, and to maintain it, whether there wereany mind to conceive it or no ; and therefore it seems not to be a mete idea. This leads'os to think therefore, that if space bath any existence, it cannot be merely au existence in the mind, but it must be something without us. SECT. III.--Js Space a Substance ? IF space be something which has an existence without us, it must be either a substance itself, or a mode or property of some substance ; for it is most evident, that it must either subsist by itself, or it must subsistin or by some other thing which does subsist by itself. There can be no medium between subsistence in and by itself, and subsistence in and by one another. Now that space cannot be a mode or property, I prove thus. If it be a mode, where is the substancein which it is, or by which it subsists, or to which it belongs? Doth not the substance exist wheresoever the mode is ? Did we ever hear of a mode ten thousand miles long, and no substance in all that length to uphold it ? Or if the substance be co- extended with it, as it must be, wherein does this long substance differ front this property and
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=