226 GKAVITY AND LEVITY 



said, Let there be light, and there was tight > 

 that not only the whole of the planetary spheres 

 was filled with that subtile matter, but with the 

 different bodies which it had acted upon, and 

 changed, from a solid and liquid, to a gaseous 

 and igneous state. Such is the essential attri- 

 bute which belongs to these different bodies, 

 of expanding and diffusing themselves, that the 

 plenitude of matter in space, is found to exist 

 every where, and a void no where : while exten- 

 sion is the essential attribute of matter, so 

 space is the necessary recipient of it ; and as 

 matter cannot exist without space to contain 

 it, so space cannot subsist without matter to 

 fill it. Independently of supernatural means, 

 matter can no more be annihilated, than it can 

 be created ; it may be modified, and changed, 

 but it cannot be destroyed. However altered 

 in figure, and in form, the different secondary 

 qualities of matter may be, the substance it- 

 self is not like the negative quantities in algebra, 

 that can be negatived into nothing ; and a va- 

 cuum formed. To suppose that a perfect va- 

 cuum can exist to suppose that a perfect 

 exhaustion, either subsists in nature, or can be 

 accomplished by artificial means, is to admit 

 the possibility of that which is impossible ; it 

 is to suppose space to be capable of existing by 

 itself, or in the abstract, without any necessity 

 for matter * to fill it. If such an incongruity ia 



