Ethical Handbook

Preface to the Reader.

** 4

...can be, unless it is Amplitude original: Amplitudo; the quality of taking up space or having extension. taken in the most general sense, since nothing besides it can be presented to our minds by this reasoning? Therefore, logical or metaphysical Matter The author is referring to the conceptual "stuff" that makes up an idea, rather than physical matter. presents some general amplitude to our thoughts; but Form introduces a distinction or difference to this Amplitude, and indicates that by which one amplitude is intimately distinguished from another. And these are those two "incomplex principles" Fundamental, non-composite building blocks of reality. of Being insofar as it is Being—not Essence and Existence, as some unskillfully judge.

10. Nor am I moved by the fact that some people are prone to object here: that it would surely follow that there is nothing at all in the Nature of things that cannot truly be torn into parts. For I know well enough that this whole idea proceeds from a pure and simple prejudice, because in our daily lives we have so often seen extended things broken apart and dissected. However, imagining that the Expansion in which the ethereal vortices original: Vortices ætherei; a reference to René Descartes' theory that the planets are carried by "whirlpools" of invisible celestial matter. revolve is a mere Vacuum A completely empty space. arises from this: that we are accustomed to judge the "solidity" of any essence by the force with which it can affect our external senses. Otherwise, even according to the opinion of Descartes original: Cartesii; the influential French philosopher who argued that the essence of matter is extension., that immobile Amplitude in which all things must move would immediately be perceived as a certain real Essence—which, nevertheless, to be able to be torn apart [is contrary] to all human minds...