various, and cannot therefore be the images of anything settled and
determinate without the mind? Again, it is proved that sweetness is
not really in the sapid thing, because the thing remaining unaltered
the sweetness is changed into bitter, as in case of a fever or
otherwise vitiated palate. Is it not as reasonable to say that
motion is not without the mind, since if the succession of ideas in
the mind become swifter, the motion, it is acknowledged, shall
appear slower without any alteration in any external object?

  15. In short, let any one consider those arguments which are thought
manifestly to prove that colours and taste exist only in the mind, and
he shall find they may with equal force be brought to prove the same
thing of extension, figure, and motion. Though it must be confessed
this method of arguing does not so much prove that there is no
extension or colour in an outward object, as that we do not know by
sense which is the true extension or colour of the object. But the
arguments foregoing plainly shew it to be impossible that any colour
or extension at all, or other sensible quality whatsoever, should
exist in an unthinking subject without the mind, or in truth, that
there should be any such thing as an outward object.

  16. But let us examine a little the received opinion.- It is said
extension is a mode or accident of Matter, and that Matter is the
substratum that supports it. Now I desire that you would explain to me
what is meant by Matter's supporting extension. Say you, I have no
idea of Matter and therefore cannot explain it. I answer, though you
have no positive, yet, if you have any meaning at all, you must at
least have a relative idea of Matter; though you know not what it
is, yet you must be supposed to know what relation it bears to
accidents, and what is meant by its supporting them. It is evident
"support" cannot here be taken in its usual or literal sense- as
when we say that pillars support a building; in what sense therefore
must it be taken?

  17. If we inquire into what the most accurate philosophers declare
themselves to mean by material substance, we shall find them
acknowledge they have no other meaning annexed to those sounds but the
idea of Being in general, together with the relative notion of its
supporting accidents. The general idea of Being appeareth to me the
most abstract and incomprehensible of all other; and as for its
supporting accidents, this, as we have just now observed, cannot be
understood in the common sense of those words; it must therefore be
taken in some other sense, but what that is they do not explain. So
that when I consider the two parts or branches which make the
signification of the words material substance, I am convinced there is
no distinct meaning annexed to them. But why should we trouble
ourselves any farther, in discussing this material substratum or
support of figure and motion, and other sensible qualities? Does it
not suppose they have an existence without the mind? And is not this a
direct repugnancy, and altogether inconceivable?

  18. But, though it were possible that solid, figured, movable
substances may exist without the mind, corresponding to the ideas we
have of bodies, yet how is it possible for us to know this? Either
we must know it by sense or by reason. As for our senses, by them we
have the knowledge only of our sensations, ideas, or those things that
are immediately perceived by sense, call them what you will: but
they do not inform us that things exist without the mind, or
unperceived, like to those which are perceived. This the
materialists themselves acknowledge. It remains therefore that if we
have any knowledge at all of external things, it must be by reason,
inferring their existence from what is immediately perceived by sense.
But what reason can induce us to believe the existence of bodies
without the mind, from what we perceive, since the very patrons of
Matter themselves do not pretend there is any necessary connexion
betwixt them and our ideas? I say it is granted on all hands (and what
happens in dreams, phrensies, and the like, puts it beyond dispute)
that it is possible we might be affected with all the ideas we have
now, though there were no bodies existing without resembling them.
Hence, it is evident the supposition of external bodies is not
necessary for the producing our ideas; since it is granted they are
produced sometimes, and might possibly be produced always in the
same order, we see them in at present, without their concurrence.

  19. But, though we might possibly have all our sensations without
them, yet perhaps it may be thought easier to conceive and explain the
manner of their production, by supposing external bodies in their
likeness rather than otherwise; and so it might be at least probable
there are such things as bodies that excite their ideas in our
minds. But neither can this be said; for, though we give the
materialists their external bodies, they by their own confession are
never the nearer knowing how our ideas are produced; since they own
themselves unable to comprehend in what manner body can act upon
spirit, or how it is possible it should imprint any idea in the
mind. Hence it is evident the production of ideas or sensations in our
minds can be no reason why we should suppose Matter or corporeal
substances, since that is acknowledged to remain equally
inexplicable with or without this supposition. If therefore it were
possible for bodies to exist without the mind, yet to hold they do so,
must needs be a very precarious opinion; since it is to suppose,
without any reason at all, that God has created innumerable beings
that are entirely useless, and serve to no manner of purpose.

  20. In short, if there were external bodies, it is impossible we
should ever come to know it; and if there were not, we might have
the very same reasons to think there were that we have now. Suppose-
what no one can deny possible- an intelligence without the help of
external bodies, to be affected with the same train of sensations or
ideas that you are, imprinted in the same order and with like
vividness in his mind. I ask whether that intelligence hath not all