ESSAY XII. 475 atom is distinct from the sameness of a mass of atoms ; and that is different frog[ the samenessof vegetables, of animals, ofspirits, of men. The identity of modes, actions and relations, and those things whose existence consists in succession, is pretty clearly determined in his 2d section, and the identity of complex beings in his 28th and 29th. But this author having written more intelligibly on this sub- ject than preceding philosophers, grows bold, and asserts, that the difficulty of this subject arises from names ill-used, rather than from any obscurity in the thing itself, and that it is want of care and attention that has clouded and confounded the thoughts of men. I take leave humbly to remark, that though in his general scheme of identity and diversity, as well as in his par- ticular application here to body, mind, plant, animal, &c. lie has performed with great ingenuity, yet there remain some dif- ficulties which want farther care, attention, and assistance to remove. First, In his second section he asserts that there could be no distinction of substances or any thing else one from another ; if we do not suppose minds as well as bodies to exclude any of the same kind out of the same place : Which is not only opposed by the vulgar philosophers, which suppose a thousand minds may be in the same ubi, but it is very disagreeable also with the juster notion of a mind, which being not extended and having no relation to place, can neither be said to admit or exclude fel- low-minds from the same place ; but that every spirit is suf- ficiently distinguished L'um all others by its particular cogitations and consciousness. And besides, if minds were extended, why may not two created minds be in the same place, and penetrate each other as well as he supposes God the infinite mind, to penetrate all minds and all bodies whatsoever ? Must God be the same with all minds, because he penetrates all minds ? If a spirit be never so little denser than space, it is matter ; and if spirits be no denser than spaces, why may they not penetrate each other as well as both space and spirit are supposed to penetrate matter? I thought it had been a peculiar property of matter to be impene- trable by a being of its own kind. What ! is spirit impenetrable by spirit too? Can a spirit penetrate the grossest matter, and yet not penetrate that thin extension of a fellow - spirit, which is finer than the most refined matter, and as tenuious and unsolid as space itself, as mere emptiness. Secondly,' In the 4th, 5th and 8th articles he makes the identityof vegetable and animal beings to consist in a partici- pation of the same continued life by constantly fleeting particles otlmatter in succession vitally united to the saine organized body. Here I ask leave to remark,
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