BOOK I PART II
Here then are three relations betwixt that dis-
tance, which conveys the idea of extension, and
that other, which is not filled with any coloured
or solid object. The distant objects affect the
senses in the same manner, whether separated
by the one distance or the other; the second
species of distance is found capable of receiv-
ing the first; and they both equally diminish the
force of every quality.
These relations betwixt the two kinds of dis-
tance will afford us an easy reason, why the
one has so often been taken for the other, and
why we imagine we have an idea of exten-
sion without the idea of any object either of
the sight or feeling. For we may establish it as
a general maxim in this science of human na-
ture, that wherever there is a close relation be-
twixt two ideas, the mind is very apt to mistake