t 312 AN ENQUIRY CONCERNING SPACE. the power of imagination, mistakes a substantial being for mere nothing, and sometimes it mistakes nothing for a substantial be ing. And indeed this is the very first way whereby all men gain the idea of space, the subject of our present debate. We see a room which is full of light, and air, which are real bodies or substances, andwe imagine there is nothing in it ; and then we call this nothingvoidor empty space, and fancy this empty space to be broad, and long, and deep, to reach from wall to wall, and from the floor to the ceiling : Thence Comes our first conception of space, with its properties of length, breadth and depth ; and thus it is ushered into our minds at first by a gross mistake of light and air, which are something, for mere nothing. Then our imagination changes the scence,s and turns this nothing into something again, by leaving out the idea of void or emptiness, giving it a positive name, and calling it space. Alas ! how prone are we to error, in taking things that are not for things that are, and of mistaking mere imaginary beings Tor real ones, by supposing real properties to belong to them. Perhaps this may be the very case, when we imagine space (which in itself may be a mere non-entity or nothing) to have any real powers or properties ; and our thoughts may be grossly deluded in this matter, though it may not be easy to find always where the delusion lies. SECT. VIMSpace compared to Shadow or Darkness. I AM sure there is a very great instance or example of the like kind of delusion in our ideas of shadow or darkness*. May wenot as well say, that a shadow or darkness has some real powers and properties? May we not say, that it bath the pro- perty of length, and breadth, and depth, and distance contained in it? That it has power to conceal men andbouses fromour sight, to spread darkness and invisibility over a garden of flowers, or a roomof .pictures, and yet that it hath a power to render stars and glow-worms more visible ? Does not a shadow shew us the hour on a sun- dial ? Does it not refresh man and beast in a sultry day, and help to spread slumber over the eyes at night ? Are not these considerable-and real powers. Again, a shadow seems to have a motion. Ifa cloud move across the sky and hide the sun, do we not say, the shadow moves either slowly or swiftly across the field or the chamber? s: The chief if not the only difference between our ideas or shadow and dark- ness, is this, that darkness is a general tern, signifying the absence of light; but the word shadow usually signifies that absence of light from any place, which" is caused by the interposition of an opacions body between some' lucid body and that place; Such are the shadows of men, beasts and trees upon a field, in a shining day. Night itself in a proper speech is the chadors of the earth interposed between the suo and the opposite part of the air or sky. And all darkness as far as ur Senses reach, is really but a shadow.
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