Chap. V. ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. 25 



HAP. V. 



0/" Space — Space a third thing in Nature bejides Body and Mind, 

 according to fome Fhilofophers. — According to Epicurus, Space and 

 Body the only tivo things m Nature. — Strange Conjequences from 

 the Notion 0/" Space being a thing exijiing by itfelf. — Space main- 

 tained by the modern Theijls not to be a Siihjlance^ but a ^lality of 

 Divinity. — Strange Confequences of this Notion. — If it be true, ifi- 

 tire/y a modern Difcovery . — ^Space beany thing, it mufl be eitherSuh- 

 ftance or Accident — 7iot Subftance — tiot Accident — not mere Capa- 

 city, ivhich is nothing — Space jiich a Principle of Nature as A- 

 riftotle's Privation. — Space has no Properties. — Not extended there- 

 fore, nor, properly fpeaking, meafured. — Duration, Time, Eternity, 

 no j)roperties of things, though necejfary for their Exijlence. 



IT is a principle of this philofophy, which I have often inculca- 

 ted, that there is nothing in the univerfe, except Body and 

 Mind, and their Properties. But many philofophers, antient as well 

 as modern, have maintained that there is a third being in Nature, 

 namely Space. This was the philofophy of Epicurus, and, before 

 him, of Democritus, who maintained, that there were only two 

 things in Nature which were the caufes of all things, viz. Body, 

 and the vacuum or inane, fo they called Space. For they held, as I 

 do, that there were only two principles in Nature ; but, inftead of 

 Mind, they faid one of them was Space, which they faid was the 

 only immaterial or incorporeal thing in Nature ; and, befides thefe 

 Vol. II. D two, 



