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not to touch one another, there must necessarily be some- 

 thing between them, otherwise there would be no dif- 

 ference between touching and not touching. 



Whatever is indued with properties, must actually ex- 

 ist. Now space has the property, or capacity, of receiv- 

 ing all bodies. Darkness, abstractedly considered, has not 

 the property of admitting light, nor silence that of ad- 

 mitting sound; but darkness is rather that part of space 

 that is free from light. 



Thus far the debate was intelligibly carried on, and 

 some new matter advanced. The remainder consists chiefly 

 of a repetition of the arguments, already adduced in the 

 Leibnitzian correspondence, and therefore requires no far- 

 ther notice. 



We may now state the true notion of space ; which is 

 so obvious, that it is surprizing it should have escaped 

 the notice of these profound metaphysicians. 



Space is nothing more or less, than the relation of two, 

 or more, distant bodies to each other, or of the distant 

 parts of the same body to each other. 



All relations are merely mental, but the objects related 

 are real. The fonndation of this relation is the standard 

 extension; or the number of such extensions, as inches, 

 feet, miles, &c., as we find or conceive necessary, to reach 

 from one body to the other. Thus, all that can, with 

 truth, be affirmed of space, may clearly be conceived. 



Its primary notion is not the capacity of receiving bo- 

 dies; this is merely a consequence, inferred from distance: 



in 



