FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   160   161   162   163   164   165   166   167   168   169   170   171   172   173   174   175   176   177   178   >>  
ribes a little too much to matter to say, where there is no body, there is nothing. 4. Why Men more easily admit infinite Duration than infinite Expansion. Hence I think we may learn the reason why every one familiarly and without the least hesitation speaks of and supposes Eternity, and sticks not to ascribe INFINITY to DURATION; but it is with more doubting and reserve that many admit or suppose the INFINITY OF SPACE. The reason whereof seems to me to be this,--That duration and extension being used as names of affections belonging to other beings, we easily conceive in God infinite duration, and we cannot avoid doing so: but, not attributing to him extension, but only to matter, which is finite, we are apter to doubt of the existence of expansion without matter; of which alone we commonly suppose it an attribute. And, therefore, when men pursue their thoughts of space, they are apt to stop at the confines of body: as if space were there at an end too, and reached no further. Or if their ideas, upon consideration, carry them further, yet they term what is beyond the limits of the universe, imaginary space: as if IT were nothing, because there is no body existing in it. Whereas duration, antecedent to all body, and to the motions which it is measured by, they never term imaginary: because it is never supposed void of some other real existence. And if the names of things may at all direct our thoughts towards the original of men's ideas, (as I am apt to think they may very much,) one may have occasion to think by the name DURATION, that the continuation of existence, with a kind of resistance to any destructive force, and the continuation of solidity (which is apt to be confounded with, and if we will look into the minute anatomical parts of matter, is little different from, hardness) were thought to have some analogy, and gave occasion to words so near of kin as durare and durum esse. And that durare is applied to the idea of hardness, as well as that of existence, we see in Horace, Epod. xvi. ferro duravit secula. But, be that as it will, this is certain, that whoever pursues his own thoughts, will find them sometimes launch out beyond the extent of body, into the infinity of space or expansion; the idea whereof is distinct and separate from body and all other things: which may, (to those who please,) be a subject of further meditation. 5. Time to Duration is as Place to Expansion. Time in general is to dur
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   160   161   162   163   164   165   166   167   168   169   170   171   172   173   174   175   176   177   178   >>  



Top keywords:

existence

 

matter

 

duration

 
thoughts
 
infinite
 

Duration

 
Expansion
 

expansion

 

imaginary

 

easily


hardness
 

durare

 

continuation

 

occasion

 

things

 
reason
 

suppose

 

whereof

 

DURATION

 
INFINITY

extension

 
affections
 

anatomical

 

thought

 

minute

 

analogy

 

hesitation

 
supposes
 

Eternity

 

resistance


confounded

 

speaks

 

solidity

 

destructive

 

applied

 

familiarly

 

separate

 

distinct

 

infinity

 

extent


subject

 

general

 

meditation

 

launch

 

duravit

 

Horace

 
secula
 

pursues

 

original

 

pursue