11. Duration is as a line, expansion as a solid.
But there is this manifest difference between them,--That the ideas
of length which we have of expansion are turned every way, and so make figure, and breadth, and thickness; but
duration is but as it were the length of one straight line, extended in infinitum, not capable of multiplicity,
variation, or figure; but is one common measure of all existence whatsoever, wherein all things, whilst they exist,
equally partake. For this present moment is common to all things that are now in being, and equally comprehends
that part of their existence, as much as if they were all but one single being; and we may truly say, they all exist in
the same moment of time. Whether angels and spirits have any analogy to this, in respect to expansion, is beyond
my comprehension: and perhaps for us, who have understandings and comprehensions suited to our own
preservation, and the ends of our own being, but not to the reality and extent of all other beings, it is near as hard
to conceive any existence, or to have an idea of any real being, with a perfect negation of all manner of expansion,
as it is to have the idea of any real existence with a perfect negation of all manner of duration. And therefore, what
spirits have to do with space, or how they communicate in it, we know not. All that we know is, that bodies do
each singly possess its proper portion of it, according to the extent of solid parts; and thereby exclude all other
bodies from having any share in that particular portion of space, whilst it remains there.
