Divide a body as often as you
please, 'tis still body. Place it in any figure, nothing ever
results but figure, or the relation of parts. Move it in any
manner, you still find motion or a change of relation. 'Tis absurd
to imagine that motion in a circle, for instance, should be nothing
but merely motion in a circle; while motion in another direction,
as in an ellipse, should also be a passion or moral reflection;
that the shocking of two globular particles should become a
sensation of pain, and that the meeting of the triangular ones
should afford a pleasure. Now as these different shocks and
variations and mixtures are the only changes of which matter is
susceptible, and as these never afford us any idea of thought or
perception, 'tis concluded to be impossible, that thought can ever
be caused by matter.
"Few have been able to withstand the seeming evidence of this
argument; and yet nothing in the world is more easy than to refute
it. We need only reflect upon what has been proved at large, that
we are never sensible of any connexion between causes and effects,
and that 'tis only by our experience of their constant conjunction
we can arrive at any knowledge of this relation. Now, as all
objects which are not contrary are susceptible of a constant
conjunction, and as no real objects are contrary, I have inferred
from these principles (Part III.
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