€^:' 



ON SPACE AND DURATION. 



BY RICHARD iKmW AN, ESQ. L.LiDi ^F.ft.S. & P;R.I.iA2^'J00f{ 



READ, MARCH 4'', 1805; 



Nothing l^as ..coaitnbute^ n^ore to. •tUe, growth aiul 

 diffusion of tl^at,. general scepticism, ,50 prevalent in the 

 last century, with lespqct to all questions that cannot be 

 decided by the immediate testimony of the senses, as the 

 .inextricable difficulties that were supposed to attend the 

 .nature of objects most famiUar to all mankind, and un- 

 hesitantly conceived to be thoroughly understood; for it 

 seemed natural to conclude, that if, upon examination, Ave 

 find an exact notion, even of these, impossible to be at- 

 tained, we have reason to suppose, that other objects, 

 with which we are not so well acquainted, are placed 

 beyond the reach of human faculties : thus argued Bayle 

 (Zenon), thus Hume reasoned. Now, certainly, no objects 

 are more familiar to us than space and duration; and, in 

 perplexing the notions of these, they have exhausted the 

 whole force of their subtlety. If, on the contrary, it can 

 be shewn, that the notions of these are perfectly plain and 

 intelligible, in the sense in which they are universally 

 taken, and that the absurdities, that have, occurred in ex- 

 plaining them, might easily be avoided, by only adhering 



VOL. X. B b to 



