BOOK I PART II
tangible distance, or in other words, to the ca-
pacity of becoming a visible and tangible dis-
tance, the name of a vacuum, extension and
matter are the same, and yet there is a vac-
uum. If you will not give it that name, motion
is possible in a plenum, without any impulse
in infinitum, without returning in a circle, and
without penetration. But however we may ex-
press ourselves, we must always confess, that
we have no idea of any real extension without
filling it with sensible objects, and conceiving
its parts as visible or tangible.
As to the doctrine, that time is nothing but
the manner, in which some real objects exist;
we may observe, that it is liable to the same ob-
jections as the similar doctrine with regard to
extension. If it be a sufficient proof, that we
have the idea of a vacuum, because we dis-