THE METAPHYSICS OP SENSATION 249 



But the doctrine that all the phenomena of 

 nature are resolvable into mechanism is what 

 people have agreed to call " materialism; " and 

 when Locke and Collins maintained that matter 

 may possibly be able to think, and Newton 

 himself could compare infinite space to the sen- 

 sorium of the Deity, it was not wonderful that 

 the English philosophers should be attacked as 

 they were by Leibnitz in the famous letter to the 

 Princess of Wales, which gave rise to his corre- 

 spondence with Clarke.* 



" 1. Natural religion itself seems to decay [in 

 England] very much. Many will have human 

 souls to be material; others make God Himself a 

 corporeal Being. 



" 2. Mr. Locke and his followers are uncertain, 

 at least, whether the soul be not material and 

 naturally perishable. 



" 3. Sir Isaac Newton says that space is an 

 organ which God makes use of to perceive things 

 by. But if God stands in need of any organ to 

 perceive things by, it will follow that they do not 

 depend altogether upon Him, nor were produced 

 by Him. 



" 4. Sir Isaac Newton and his followers have 

 also a very odd opinion concerning the work of 

 God. According to their doctrine, God Almighty 

 wants to wind up His watch from time to time; 



* Collection of Papers which passed between the learned 

 late Mr. Leibnitz and Dr. Clarke. 1717. 



