Chap.V. ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. 27 



a quality or property of the Supreme Being, that it is an yfccijent, 

 of which, the Sub/lance, God, is the Sub^ratum : So Dr Clarke has 

 expreffccl himfelf in his anfwer to the third letter of the Gloucefier- 

 ihire gentleman. But I think it was by no means neceffliry, even 

 fuppofing it to have a real exiftence, that Sir Ifaac (liould make it fo 

 eflential an attribute of the Divinity, as to ferve him, by way of 

 Jenforium ; fo that one fhould be apt to imagine, though, I am per- 

 fuaded, it was not the cafe, that Sir Ifaac thought the Deity could 

 have no perception or intelligence without Space, any more than 

 we could have without oxxr fenfor'mm. 



There is one confequence of Space being a property of the Divine 

 nature, and which, I fee, is obferved by the Glouceilerfhire gentle- 

 man, that, if injinite Space be a property of the Divinity, Tzh//^ Space 

 muft be a property of inferior Minds, fuch as ours. The Doitor's 

 anfwer to this, in his third letter to that gentleman, is to me altoge- 

 ther unintelligible, I muft therefore take it for granted, till I am 

 better informed, that the Gloucefterfliire gentleman is in the right, 

 and, confequently, that there are certain portions of Space that are 

 common property betwixt the Deity and inferior Minds. And Bo-, 

 dy muft alfo be a fliarer in this propeity, fo far as it occupies Space ; 

 for, if Space be a property of Mind, I think it is impofTible but that 

 it muft be likewife a property of Body, which we are fure it occu- 

 pies in a manner we very well underftand ; whereas Mind occupies 

 it in a manner we cannot at all explain. 



Thefc are ftrangc notions ; and, if they be well fouiided,- they 

 may be fet down among the other great difcoveries that we moderns 

 are fuppofed to have made in philofophy. The antients difputed 

 very much, whether fuch a thing exifted as a vacuum, which we 

 mean by the word Space. And, in Ariftotle's Fourth Book of Phy- 

 fics, there is a very long and fubtile difputatlon upon the fubje£t. 



D 2 But 



