ESSAY I. 349 placedat twenty miles distance, and yet nothing Tint emptiness, i. e. no real being, between them? However harsh and uncouth it may sound to learned ears, that these " two bodies are twenty miles asunder, and they do not touch though there benothing between them," yet the vulgar world, who very much deter- mine the common sense of words, will allow this language to be good ; for they generally suppose space to he emptiness, that is, to be nothing. And if the learned are offended with this lan- guage, it is because they have of late years at least, run into this supposition, that space is a real something ; and it is merely their own espoused opinion that makes this expressionoffensiveto them which the vulgar part of mankind generally approve of, if you give them leave to think a little. Besides, by the former debates it plainly appears, that if space be a real something, it must be a substance, it must be deity; for the reasonsseem to beunanswerably strong, that space cannot bea mode, nor a creature. Now is it not quite as absurd to say, " There are twenty miles of deity between two such dis- tant bodies, as to say, they are created or placed at such a dis- tance," and yet there is nothing between them, i. e. there is no real being, or between them is all emptiness. I grant it is hardly possible to speak on this subject of non- entities or nothings, without using the terms that represent posi- tivebeings and real properties : but as we are thus imposed upon by wordsAnd by our common ideas in treating of shadows, which we know are nothing but the, absence of light, i. e. a mere non- entity, why may not the same be true also with regard to space or emptiness, which is the mere absence of body ? And if we are in this point imposed upon to take space or emptiness for a real something, by some forms of speech we have been taught to use concerning it, and some appearing or imaginary properties that we ascribe to it, we see plainly it is not the first nor the only instance wherein mankind have been deluded by thecommon ways and manners of speaking, and imposedupon to take words for things, and to mistake appearances for realities. In order to confirm this thought, I may cite Mr. Lock. himself, however positive an idea he may suppose space to be in some parts of his writings. His eight chapter of the second Book of his Essays allows positive ideas of mere private things or privations. See §. 3, 4, 5. "The idea of black is no less positive in the mind of a painter than that of white, however the cause of that colour in the external object may be only privation." Sect. 4. " If it were the design of my present undertaking to enquire into the natural causes and manner of preception, I should offer this as a reason whya privative cause might in some casesat least produce a positive idea, via. that all sensation being
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