ws 
PHYSICAL awn LITERARY. 123 
gure or motion of certain parcels of matter. 
But what can be more ridiculous than to i- 
magine, that matter is as effentially con- 
{cious, as it is extended! Will it not follow 
from that fuppofition, that every piece of 
matter, being made up of endlefsly feparable 
parts, (that is, of parts which are as. really 
. diftin® beings, notwithftanding their conti- 
guity, as if they had been at the greateft 
diftance one from another) is made up alfo 
ef innumerable confcioufneffes and infinite 
confufion? And farther, if every part of 
matter be felf-confcious, it would be a con- 
tradiction to fuppofe that any. fyftem could 
be fo. The refulting fenfation or confciouf- 
nefs at laft being but one diftin@ fenfation or 
confcioufnefs, (as is that of a man) the fenfa-~ 
tion or confcioufnefs of every one of the 
conftituent particles, would be the individual 
fenfation or confcioufnefs of all and each 
of the reft. In the next place, the faculty of 
thinking canaot arife from the fize, figure, 
texture, or motion of body; nor can be de- 
{troyed by any alteration of thefe qualities: 
becaufe bodies, by any change of thefe, only 
become greater or lefs, rou d or {quare, rare 
or denfe, tranflated from one place to another, 
with 
