Chap. II. ANTIENTMETAPHYSICS. 365 



refpeds ; /r/?, as to Its capacity of teceWm^ body ; iriJ/-, as to its 

 bounding or limiting body ; and, lajly, as to its being the diftance be- 

 twixt bodies that are feparated. And, except thofe relations to body^ it 

 is, in every other refpedt, a mere non- entity. Whatever, therefore, 

 has been faid of it, as of a thing exiiling by itfelf, that is, a fubftance, 

 or as quality, quantity, or belonging to any other category, ex- 

 cept relation, is without any ground, and is the error of thofe who 

 have not ftudied univerfals, nor have been taught to diftinguilli 

 accurately betwixt the feveral things of which this univerfe is compo- 

 fed. 



After I have faid fo much of /pace, what I have to fay of place is 

 very fliort. It Is, according to my apprehenfion, nothing but /pace 

 occupied by body, according to the di{Hnd:ion with which I fet out In 

 the beginning of this chapter, betwixt /pace void of body or 'uacumny 

 2iVi6.fpace filled with body. Place, therefore, according to this defi- 

 nition, is different from body, as that which contains Is different from 

 that which Is contained. If there be no vacuum round the body, but 

 other bodies, then is the body not bounded hj /pace, but by the cir- 

 cumambient bodies. And, If there be no 'vacuum in Nature, this- 

 muft be the cafe of all bodies ; and, if (o, the place of every body muft 

 be bounded by the circumambient bodies. And, as Ariiiotle holds 

 that opinion, he accordingly has fo defined p/<7C^ *. 



From this account of place, we are enabled to give a Ihorter defi- 

 nition of /pace than what has hitherto been given, namely, that it is 

 place "^^yxuH, or potentially ; and, when it is filled with body, then It 

 is place a^iially, or fr£gv$(^. This is only exprefling, in fewer words, 



what 



* 7a ^i^cti T«y ;rfg<£;^ovT»s rfi),uHTcu De Natural! Aufcultatlone, lib. 4. cap. 6» 

 verfusjinem> 



