Concerning this Second Edition

...[im]mense interior within which the entire Vortex original: Vortex; a swirling whirlpool of matter in Cartesian physics. lies, in which this Elliptical circuit is described by the body of the Earth. This interior Extension In 17th-century philosophy, "Extension" refers to the quality of taking up space. is immobile, and the entire Vortex moves within it. Finally, this is that Extension to which alone the necessity of existence belongs; it is something that neither our mind nor our imagination can drive out or exterminate from the Universe by any means. Wherever the mind wanders, it falls, even against its will, into this immobile Extension.

6. Furthermore, it follows from this—if we are willing to listen to Descartes René Descartes (1596–1650), the French philosopher who argued that matter and space are the same thing., who so often hammers home that maxim: Nothing has no properties original: "Nihil nullam esse affectionem"; a Cartesian principle meaning that if you can perceive properties like "length" or "width" in space, then that space must be a "something" (a substance) rather than "nothing."—that this immobile and necessary Extension is also a certain Essence or Substance. Since it cannot be a body (as it penetrates Body or Matter everywhere), it remains that it must be Incorporeal or Spirit, or, if you prefer, the amplitude of some immense Spirit. Since, in truth, the necessity of existence can belong to no thing except to God alone, it follows that this immense Amplitude which we discover must necessarily exist is none other than the Divine Presence itself, in which we live, move, and have our being. A reference to the biblical Book of Acts 17:28, which More uses to suggest that Space is actually God's immense presence.

7. If these things are so, we have arrived by a certain correct and plainly demonstrative Method at both the First Mover of Aristotle original: Motor primus; Aristotle's concept of an initial cause of all motion in the universe....