ion too; and every part of extension is
extension, both of them capable of addition or division in infinitum.
But THE LEAST PORTIONS OF EITHER OF THEM, WHEREOF WE HAVE CLEAR AND
DISTINCT IDEAS, may perhaps be fittest to be considered by us, as the
simple ideas of that kind out of which our complex modes of space,
extension, and duration are made up, and into which they can again be
distinctly resolved. Such a small part in duration may be called a
MOMENT, and is the time of one idea in our minds, in the train of their
ordinary succession there. The other, wanting a proper name, I know not
whether I may be allowed to call a SENSIBLE POINT, meaning thereby the
least particle of matter or space we can discern, which is ordinarily
about a minute, and to the sharpest eyes seldom less than thirty seconds
of a circle, whereof the eye is the centre.

10. Their Parts inseparable.

Expansion and duration have this further agreement, that, though they
are both considered by us as having parts, yet their parts are not
separable one from another, no not even in thought: though the parts
of bodies from whence we take our MEASURE of the one; and the parts of
motion, or rather the succession of ideas in our minds, from whence we
take the MEASURE of the other, may be interrupted and separated; as the
one is often by rest, and the other is by sleep, which we call rest too.

11. Duration is as a Line, Expansion as a Solid.

But there is this manifest difference between them,--That the ideas
of length which we have of expansion are turned every way, and so make
figure, and breadth, and thickness; but duration is but as it were the
length of one straight line, extended in infinitum, not capable of
multiplicity, variation, or figure; but is one common measure of all
existence whatsoever, wherein all things, whilst they exist, equally
partake. For this present moment is common to all things that are now in
being, and equally comprehends that part of their existence, as much as
if they were all but one single being; and we may truly say, they all
exist in the SAME moment of time. Whether angels and spirits have any
analogy to this, in respect to expansion, is beyond my comprehension:
and perhaps for us, who have understandings and comprehensions suited
to our own preservation, and the ends of our own being, but not to the
reality and extent of all other beings, it is near as hard to conceive
any existence, or to have an idea of any real