362 A N T I E N T METAPHYSICS. Book IV. 



has, therefore, a potential cxlftence, of a very fingular kind ; for o- 

 ther things that exift potentially have the capacity of becoming7o;w- 

 thing. Thus, wood, for example, has the capacity of becoming a 

 chair or a table ; brafs the capacity of becoming a ftatue or a vafe ; 

 and the firft matter has the capacity of becoming every corporeal 

 thing : But /pace has not the capacity of becoming any thing, but 

 only of receiving any thing. In fhort, it is not, nor cannot become 

 any thing itfelf, nor hath any adual exigence ; but is that without 

 which nothing corporeal could exift. It is not, therefore, a caufe, in 

 any fenfe of the word ; for it is not the 7naterial or formal caufe of 

 any thing ; neither is it the efficient ox final ; but it is merely pajjive 

 of the exiflence of body. 



It may be objeded, that we can conceive ^^r^, in fuch a cafe, to be 

 meafured by yards and feet, as well as body ; therefore fomething more 

 may be predicated of it than merely being the receptacle of body^ viz. 

 that it is capable of being meafured, and that it has the three dimen- 

 fions ; but this is only a confequence of its capability to receive W/ ; 

 for body muft be in it before it can be meafured ; for it is only by 

 the application of body to it that it is meafured ; and, being applied to 

 it, it is of neceflary confequence that its dimenfions fhould correfpond 

 with the dimenfions of body^ becaufe it furrounds and bounds body. 

 It is not, therefore, fpeaking properly, to fay, ihditfpace has the three 

 dimenfions, as thcfe belong only to body-y diud fpace^ as furrounding 

 body J does no more than correfpond to thefe dimenfions. 



Space^ therefore, upon the fuppofitlon of its being the only thing 

 exifting, is nothing but the capacity of receiving body^ whenever it 

 fhall exift ; and it is "ptvitCdy pqffive of body ; not only receiving it, 

 but letting it pafs through it, without the leaft refiftence. And this is 

 one difference, among others, betwixt matter z.udi/pace, that matter is 

 cffentially and neceflarily exifting, or antitypus, as the Greek philofo- 



phers 



