[CHAPTER VI.]
REMARKS ON EXTENSION.
37. If extension is something as we have proved; what is it?
We find extension in bodies and also in space because in both we find that which constitutes its essence, which is dimension. Is the extension of bodies the same as the extension of space?
I see and hold in my hand a pen: it is certainly extended. It moves, and its extension moves with it. The space in which its motion is executed remains immovable. At the instant A the extension of the pen occupies the point A′; at the moment B the same extension of the pen occupies the part B′ of space which is distinct from the part A′; therefore neither the part A′ of space nor the part B′ is identified with the extension of the body.
This seems to have all the force of a demonstration; but to make it more clear and more general, I will put it into the form of a syllogism. Things which are separated or may be separated are distinct; but the extension of bodies may be separated from any part of space; therefore the extension of bodies and the extension of space are distinct. I said that this reasoning seems to have all the force of a demonstration, but it is nevertheless subject to serious difficulties. These difficulties cannot be understood without a profound analysis of the idea of space, and therefore I shall reserve my opinion until this has been treated of in the following chapters.
38. Is the extension of a body the body itself? I cannot conceive a body without extension, but this does not prove that extension is the same thing as the body. My soul has acquired a knowledge of the body by means of the senses. These senses have awakened in me the idea of extension; but they have told me nothing of the intrinsic nature of the body perceived.
In those beings which we call bodies we find the power of producing in us impressions very distinct from that of extension. From two bodies of equal extension we receive very different impressions, therefore there is in them something besides extension. If extension was their only quality, this being equal, the effect would be the same; but experience teaches us that it is not so.
Moreover we conceive extension in pure space where there is no body. The idea of body implies the idea of mobility, while space is immovable. It implies the power of producing impressions; the extension of space has not of itself this power.