O INTRODUCTION TO 



Of Matter. 



In the investigation of Matter it may be a question whether the 

 thing impressing or the thing impressed, ought to be considered first, 

 being in themselves coeval or necessarily depending on each other ; but, 

 as the thing impressed appears to itself to be passive, and as it receives 

 intelligence of the impressor, it is naturally, from cause and effect, led 

 to the thing impressing ; and, when it considers itself, it is an abstract 

 consideration. And, in this investigation, we are to consider ourselves 

 as matter, because we have within ourselves the power of impressing 

 either ourselves or others ; therefore, ourselves appear to ourselves to 

 be matter as much as anything else that we call matter. 



By matter, then, we mean everything that is capable of making such 

 impression as to give us some sensation, or, everything that is capable 

 of affecting by some means or other out' senses. This globe, with all 

 its attendants and modes of action, comprehends every material fit to 

 produce such effects. 



The universe has been divided into ' Matter ' and ' Spirit ; ' but, 

 admitting the possibility of such a thing as ' spirit,' we cannot possibly 

 have an idea of it, as it goes beyond matter ; beyond which we cannot 

 go even in idea*. 



Matter is endowed with properties which become the cause of our 

 sensations ; for it is only the properties in common matter and our im- 

 pressions combined that produce sensations, or the knowledge of matter 

 at all. Therefore, without sensation, no knowledge of matter would 

 have existed; and, without matter, no sensation could have existed; 

 therefore matter and our senses perfectly correspond. But our senses, 

 simply, do not give us an exact idea of the immediate impression ; in 

 many [instances they give us] a reference only to something else, to 

 that which becomes the immediate use or application of such impression ; 

 and that is owing to the mode of immediate impression being invisible 

 in itself, or being incapable of affecting in this action any other sense, 

 and therefore is referred to another cause. 



* This world has been divided into 'Matter' and 'Spirit.' Matter abstracted 

 from proportion could only just strike our senses ; but there were properties that 

 could, in idea, be abstracted from Matter, which [abstractions] were called ' Spirit.' 

 Spirit was a something superadded to, and therefore distinct from, matter; but 

 a more just idea of these two is to suppose that ' Spirit ' is only a property of 

 'Matter' 1 . 



1 [This is an instance of one of those ' Notes ' in which Hunter endeavours to 

 make more intelligible, some idea the expression of which he found difficult or 

 oppressive.] 



