213 



there can be no motion, where there can be no direc- 

 tion, either upwards or downwards, eastwards or westwards, 

 &c. And as, in the supposed case, these, or any other 

 direction, exist only in imagination, there, and there only, 

 motion can exist. This even the scholastics perceived, of 

 whom Dr. Clarke thought tfto contemptuously. 



Farther, he thinks it absurd to say, that space is abso. 

 lutely nothing; for of nothing there is no quantity, di- 

 mensions, or property: nor is it a mere idea; for no idea 

 of space can be formed larger than finite, yet space must 

 be infinite. Nor is it a relation of one thing to another, 

 arising from situation or order; for space is a quantity, 

 which situation or order are not. 



These objections arise from the wrong notion he held 

 of space: its primary notion is distance. Distance implies 

 an interval between the distant bodies; which interval, if 

 filled up, is called soUd space; and, if unoccupied, is 

 called empty space: but this is nothing, real and physi- 

 cal; and, consequently, can have no dimension, or any 

 property, but in proportion to the distance of the bodies 

 betwixt Avhich it intercedes, a capacity of receiving bo- 

 dies, of certain dimensions, is inferred to exist; not as 

 any thing physical, but as a mere possibility, and, like 

 other relations, existing only in the mind ; but Avhose foun- 

 dation (that is, the distant bodies) is physical and real. 

 Distance is a relation susceptible of degrees, and, conse- 

 quently, of quantity, though order and situation may not.. 

 VOL X. ' EC Grotius 



