Is this fair dealing?
To act consistently, you must either admit Matter or reject
Spirit. What say you to this?
. say, in the first place, that I do not deny the
existence of material substance, merely because I have no notion
of it' but because the notion of it is inconsistent; or, in other
words, because it is repugnant that there should be a notion of
it. Many things, for aught I know, may exist, whereof neither I
nor any other man hath or can have any idea or notion whatsoever.
But then those things must be possible, that is, nothing {233}
inconsistent must be included in their definition. I say,
secondly, that, although we believe things to exist which we do
not perceive, yet we may not believe that any particular thing
exists, without some reason for such belief: but I have no reason
for believing the existence of Matter. I have no immediate
intuition thereof: neither can I immediately from my sensations,
ideas, notions, actions, or passions, infer an unthinking,
unperceiving, inactive Substance -- either by probable deduction,
or necessary consequence.
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