of the soul confidered. 43 r

attention thither. The true cause thereforeis that just now assigned. All the parts ofour body are constantly touched, or actedupon, by something or other; and yet weare rarely percipient of this, but by. a parti-cular act of the will, directing the percepti-vity to this, or to the other part. Indeed,taking in the consideration that the percep-tivity is simple, or but one; if the percipientwere material (a solid, resisting percipient)the strongest material solicitation ought al-ways to solicit it most; and therefore to en-gross it. That is, our perception would beprecisely mechanical; and constantly deter-mined by the greatest material solicitation.What kind of thinking could be made upout of this! How much better then is it or-dered than the Sceptic would have it! It ap-peared before (N° 29. Sect. 2.) that the per-ceptions of a solid resisting percipient oughtto be mechanical and necessary; but the pre-sent consideration, I think, ssiews us the for-mal manner of that necessity (y.)

XXIII. As

(?) It is worth observing here, that since a solid ex-tended percipient would necessarily have its perceptivityexcited by material action upon it, and resistance or re-action