_MADAM,_
Your _Author_ concerning Place and Magnitude says,[1], that _Place
is nothing out of the mind, nor Magnitude any thing within it; for
Place is a meer Phantasme of a body of such quantity and figure, and
Magnitude a peculiar accident of the body_; but this doth not well
agree with my reason, for I believe that Place, Magnitude and Body are
but one thing, and that Place is as true an extension as Magnitude,
and not a feigned one; Neither am I of his opinion, _that Place is
Immoveable_, but that place moves, according as the body moveth, for
not any body wants place, because place and body is but one thing, and
wheresoever is body, there is also place, and wheresoever is place,
there is body, as being one and the same; Wherefore _Motion cannot be a
relinquishing of one place and acquiring another_,[2] for there is no
such thing as place different from body, but what is called change of
place, is nothing but change of corporeal motions; for, say an house
stands in such a place, if the house be gone, the place is gone also,
as being impossible that the place of the house should remain, when the
house is taken away; like as a man when he is gone out of his chamber,
his place is gone too; 'Tis true, if the ground or foundation do yet
remain, one may say, there stood such an house heretofore, but yet the
place of the house is not there really at that present, unless the same
house be built up again as it was before, and then it hath its place
as before; Nevertheless the house being not there, it cannot be said
that either place or house are annihilated, _viz._, when the materials
are dissolved, no not when transformed into millions of several other
figures, for the house remains still in the power of all those several
parts of matter; and as for _space_, it is onely a distance betwixt
some parts or bodies; But an _Empty place_ signifies to my opinion
Nothing, for if place and body are one and the same, and empty is
as much as nothing; then certainly these two words cannot consist
together, but are destructive to one another. Concerning, that your
_Author_ says,[3] _Two bodies cannot be together in the same place, nor
one body in two places at the same time_, is very true, for there are
no more places then bodies, nor more bodies then places, and this is to
be understood as well of the grosser, as the purest parts of nature, of
the mind as well as of the body, of the rational and sensitive animate
matter as well as of the inanimate, for there is no matter, how pure
and subtil soever, but is imbodied, and all that hath body hath place.
Likewise I am of his opinion,[4] _That one body hath always one and
the same magnitude_; for, in my opinion, magnitude, place and body do
not differ, and as place, so magnitude can never be separated from
body. But when he speaks of _Rest_, I cannot believe there is any such
thing truly in Nature, for it is impossible to prove, that any thing
is without Motion, either consistent, or composing, or dissolving, or
transforming motions, or the like, although not altogether perceptible
by our senses, for all the Matter is either moving or moved, and
although the moved parts are not capable to receive the nature of
self-motion from the self-moving parts, yet these self-moving parts,
being joyned and mixt with all other parts of the moved matter, do
always move the same; for the Moved or Inanimate part of Matter,
although it is a Part of it self, yet it is so intermixt with the
self-moving Animate Matter, as they make but one Body; and though some
parts of the Inanimate may be as pure as the Sensitive Animate Matter,
yet they are never so subtil as to be self-moving; Wherefore the
Sensitive moves in the Inanimate, and the Rational in the Sensitive,
but often the Rational moves in it self. And, although there is no rest
in nature, nevertheless Matter could have been without Motion, when as
it is impossible that Matter could be without place or magnitude, no
more then Variety can be without motion; And thus much at this present:
I conclude, and rest,
Madam,
_Your Faithful Friend_
_and Servant._
[1] _Part._ 2. _c._ 8. _a._ 5.
[2] _Art._ 10.
[3] _Art._ 8.
[4] _Art._ 5.