In like manner, if he shall conclude
from what he perceives in one station, that, in case he advances
towards the moon or tower, he should still be affected with the
like ideas, he is mistaken. But his mistake lies not in what he
perceives immediately, and at present, (it being a manifest
contradiction to suppose he should err in respect of that) but in
the wrong judgment he makes concerning the ideas he apprehends to
be connected with those immediately perceived: or, concerning the
ideas that, from what he perceives at present, he imagines would
be perceived in other circumstances. The case is the same with
regard to the Copernican system. We do not here perceive any
motion of the earth: but it were erroneous thence to conclude,
that, in case we were placed at as great a distance from that as
we are now from the other planets, we should not then perceive
its motion.
. I understand you; and must needs own you say things
plausible enough. But, give me leave to put you in mind of {239}
one thing. Pray, Philonous, were you not formerly as positive
that Matter existed, as you are now that it does not?
.
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