24. Not the substance with which the consciousness may be united.
Indeed it may conceive the substance whereof
it is now made up to have existed formerly, united in the same conscious being: but, consciousness removed, that
substance is no more itself, or makes no more a part of it, than any other substance; as is evident in the instance
we have already given of a limb cut off, of whose heat, or cold, or other affections, having no longer any
consciousness, it is no more of a man's self than any other matter of the universe. In like manner it will be in
reference to any immaterial substance, which is void of that consciousness whereby I am myself to myself: if
there be any part of its existence which I cannot upon recollection join with that present consciousness whereby I
am now myself, it is, in that part of its existence, no more myself than any other immaterial being. For,
whatsoever any substance has thought or done, which I cannot recollect, and by my consciousness make my own
thought and action, it will no more belong to me, whether a part of me thought or did it, than if it had been
thought or done by any other immaterial being anywhere existing.
