296 soulnecejfarify livings

the possibility of it, that such a body hathnot actually been made, unless an inconsis-tency in the thing itself could be shewn (o),

Some

(o) It may perhaps be the more easily conceived, thatthe body may be all over one common sensory to thesoul, if we consider that the body, in its present consti-tution, limits and confines the perceptions of the soul, butno way effects them. The fabrick of the eye is indeedwonderful, and by it this mechanical (or rather optical)problem is performed, that a living percipient Being, comfined to a dark and close place, is apprized of what exists,and is done without, and at a distance. But this mustbe performed by communicating motion from those di-stant objects to that percipient Being. A materialorgan,however artificially contrived, could conduce no otherway to the perception of a living Being , than by commu-nicating the motion it receives. It must be the percipi-ent being itself, that perceives these communicated mo-tions, by vertue of its own perceptive faculty, and sinceit is percipient in itself, and confined to a dark and closeplace, we must of consequence conceive Its perceptions tobe likewise confined-, and that the eye only permits themon one side, by communicating motion only from oneplace; and therefore that on all other parts they are hin-dered, or the motions are intercepted. How much is ltthen that the eye performs here ? Thus much only, *suppose; it limits and confines the perceptions of the soulto a narrow space, as a hole in a window shutter, n 'jnitsand confines the entrance of the rays of light.saw before, that all action mujl spring out of thenatuttof the active Being itself, (fee the Note (k) N° 9.) a^d