216 CLARKE AND SPINOZA. [CHAP. XIII. 



Butler (XIII. 11), that necessary existence implies existence 

 in every part of space. Probably this principle will be found to 

 lie at the basis of every attempt to demonstrate, d priori, the 

 existence of an Infinite Being. 



From the general properties of substance above stated, and 

 the definition of God as the substance consisting of infinite at- 

 tributes, the peculiar doctrines of Spinoza relating to the Divine 

 Nature necessarily follow. As substance is self-existent, free, 

 causal in its very nature, the thing in which other things are, 

 and by which they are conceived ; the same properties are also 

 asserted of the Deity. He is self-existent, Prop. xi. ; indivi- 

 sible, Prop. xiii. ; the only substance, Prop. xiv. ; the Being in 

 which all things are, and by which all things are conceived, 

 Prop, xv.; free, Prop. xvn. ; the immanent cause of all things, 

 Prop. xvni. The proof that God is the only substance is drawn 

 from Def. vi., which is interpreted into a declaration that " God 

 is the Being absolutely infinite, of whom no attribute which ex- 

 presses the essence of substance can be denied." Every con- 

 ceivable attribute being thus assigned by definition to Him, and 

 it being determined in Prop. v. that there cannot exist two sub- 

 stances of the same attribute, it follows that God is the only 

 substance. 



Though the " Ethics" of Spinoza, like a large portion of his 

 other writings, is presented in the geometrical form, it does not 

 afford a good praxis for the symbolical method of this work. 

 Of course every train of reasoning admits, when its ultimate 

 premises are truly determined, of being treated by that method ; 

 but in the present instance, such treatment scarcely differs, ex- 

 cept in the use of letters for words, from the processes employed 

 in the original demonstrations. Reasoning which consists so 

 largely of a play upon terms defined as equivalent, is not often 

 met with ; and it is rather on account of the interest attaching to 

 the subject, than of the merits of the demonstrations, highly as 

 by some they are esteemed, that I have devoted a few pages 

 here to their exposition. 



19. It is not possible, I think, to rise from the perusal of the 

 arguments of Clarke and Spinoza without a deep conviction of the 

 futility of all endeavours to establish, entirely d priori, the existence 



