27. Ideas of space and solidity distinct.
To conclude: whatever men shall think concerning the existence of a
vacuum, this is plain to me--that we have as clear an idea of space distinct from solidity, as we have of solidity
distinct from motion, or motion from space. We have not any two more distinct ideas; and we can as easily
conceive space without solidity, as we can conceive body or space without motion, though it be never so certain
that neither body nor motion can exist without space. But whether any one will take space to be only a relation
resulting from the existence of other beings at a distance; or whether they will think the words of the most
knowing King Solomon, "The heaven, and the heaven of heavens, cannot contain thee"; or those more emphatical
ones of the inspired philosopher St. Paul, "In him we live, move, and have our being," are to be understood in a
literal sense, I leave every one to consider: only our idea of space is, I think, such as I have mentioned, and
distinct from that of body. For, whether we consider, in matter itself, the distance of its coherent solid parts, and
call it, in respect of those solid parts, extension; or whether, considering it as lying between the extremities of any
body in its several dimensions, we call it length, breadth, and thickness; or else, considering it as lying between
any two bodies or positive beings, without any consideration whether there be any matter or not between, we call
it distance;--however named or considered, it is always the same uniform simple idea of space, taken from
objects about which our senses have been conversant; whereof, having settled ideas in our minds, we can revive,
repeat, and add them one to another as often as we will, and consider the space or distance so imagined, either as
filled with solid parts, so that another body cannot come there without displacing and thrusting out the body that
was there before; or else as void of solidity, so that a body of equal dimensions to that empty or pure space may
be placed in it, without the removing or expulsion of anything that was there. But, to avoid confusion in
discourses concerning this matter, it were possibly to be wished that the name extension were applied only to
matter, or the distance of the extremities of particular bodies; and the term expansion to space in general, with or
without solid matter possessing it,--so as to say space is expanded and body extended. But in this every one has
his liberty: I propose it only for the more clear and distinct way of speaking.
