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Hence we may infer, that, without two bodies at least, 

 there can be no distance, nor, consequently, space. Still 

 less can it be supposed to exist, when there are no 

 bodies at all; and therefore, antemundane and extramun- 

 dane spaces are merely imaginary. 



If it be asked, where a single body would be placed, 

 if no other body were created? I answer, 710 where, that 

 is, in no place; j)^'^^^ being, as Mr. Locke justly observes, 

 B. II. chap. xiii. ^. 7, the relation of distance, betwixt two 

 or more points, which are considered , as at rest. When, 

 therefore, there are no such points, there is no place: 

 and hence, as he remarks, ibid. §. 10, to say that the world 

 is somewhere, means no more, than that it does exist, but 

 not its Ideation. 



I shall now take a retrospective view of the opinions 

 already mentioned; and observe hoAV far they are just, 

 and how far defective. 



SECTION II. 



Des Cartes, yielding to the suggestions of imagination, 

 which we need not be surprized at, _since it imposed on 

 Newton, Clarke, and, at times, on Locke himself, assert- 

 ed, that space necessarily implied extension. Now, exten- 

 sion is a mere abstraction, and, consequently, can have no 

 real existence. The term extension means no more than 

 extended things, taken ad libitum. Of these, like all other 



abstract 



