13. The parts of space inseparable, both really and mentally.
Secondly, The parts of pure space are inseparable
one from the other; so that the continuity cannot be separated, neither really nor mentally. For I demand of any
one to remove any part of it from another, with which it is continued, even so much as in thought. To divide and
separate actually is, as I think, by removing the parts one from another, to make two superficies, where before
there was a continuity: and to divide mentally is, to make in the mind two superficies, where before there was a
continuity, and consider them as removed one from the other; which can only be done in things considered by the
mind as capable of being separated; and by separation, of acquiring new distinct superficies, which they then have
not, but are capable of But neither of these ways of separation, whether real or mental, is, as I think, compatible to
pure space.
It is true, a man may consider so much of such a space as is answerable or commensurate to a foot, without
considering the rest, which is, indeed, a partial consideration, but not so much as mental separation or division;
since a man can no more mentally divide, without considering two superficies separate one from the other, than he
can actually divide, without making two superficies disjoined one from the other: but a partial consideration is not
separating. A man may consider light in the sun without its heat, or mobility in body without its extension,
without thinking of their separation. One is only a partial consideration, terminating in one alone; and the other is
a consideration of both, as existing separately.
