And therefore experimenting and discovering in
ourselves knowledge, and the power of voluntary motion, as certainly
as we experiment, or discover in things without us, the cohesion and
separation of solid parts, which is the extension and motion of
bodies; we have as much reason to be satisfied with our notion of
immaterial spirit, as with our notion of body, and the existence of
the one as well as the other. For it being no more a contradiction
that thinking should exist separate and independent from solidity,
than it is a contradiction that solidity should exist separate and
independent from thinking, they being both but simple ideas,
independent one from another: and having as clear and distinct ideas
in us of thinking, as of solidity, I know not why we may not as well
allow a thinking thing without solidity, i.e. immaterial, to exist, as
a solid thing without thinking, i.e. matter, to exist; especially
since it is not harder to conceive how thinking should exist without
matter, than how matter should think. For whensoever we would
proceed beyond these simple ideas we have from sensation and
reflection, and dive further into the nature of things, we fall
presently into darkness and obscurity, perplexedness and difficulties,
and can discover nothing further but our own blindness and
ignorance.
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