A Treatise of Human Nature

(Jeff_L) #1

BOOK I PART II


we should preserve the idea of their colour or
tangibility in order to comprehend them by our
imagination. There is nothing but the idea of
their colour or tangibility, which can render
them conceivable by the mind. Upon the re-
moval of the ideas of these sensible qualities,
they are utterly annihilated to the thought or
imagination.


Now such as the parts are, such is the whole.
If a point be not considered as coloured or tan-
gible, it can convey to us no idea; and conse-
quently the idea of extension, which is com-
posed of the ideas of these points, can never
possibly exist. But if the idea of extension re-
ally can exist, as we are conscious it does, its
parts must also exist; and in order to that, must
be considered as coloured or tangible. We have
therefore no idea of space or extension, but

Free download pdf