its being so necessary to him it can never have
existed, nor will it ever exist according to the definition of the
spirit which is invisible in the body, for in the elements there are no
incorporate things, for where there is no body there is a vacuum, and a
vacuum cannot exist in the elements because it would be immediately
filled by them.

[Sidenote: Deceptiveness of the Senses]

104.

The eye in its given distances and by its given means deceives itself
in the performance of its functions less than any other sense, because
it sees in straight lines which form a cone, the base of which is the
object it perceives, and transmits it to the eye, as I intend to prove.
But the ear greatly deceives itself as to the position and distance of
the objects it apprehends, because the sonorous waves do not reach it
in straight lines, like those of the eye, but by tortuous and reflex
lines, and often the most remote seem to be nearest, owing to the
peregrinations of such waves, although the voice of the echo is
transmitted to the sense by straight lines only. The smell is less
certain of the spot whence the odour arises, but {184} taste and touch
alone come into direct contact with the object which they apprehend.

[Sidenote: On the Conception of Nothingness]

105.

The smallest natural point is larger than all mathematical points, and
the proof of this is that the natural point has continuity, and
everything which has continuity is infinitely divisible; but the
mathematical point is indivisible because it is not a quantity. Every
continuous quantity is mentally infinitely divisible. Among the
magnitude of things which are among us, the chief of all is
nothingness; and its function extends to matter that does not exist,
and its essence is in time in the past or in the future, and it has
nothing of the present. This nothingness has its part equal to the
whole and the whole to the part, and the divisible to the indivisible,
and produces the same result by addition or subtraction, or if it be
divided or multiplied,--as is proved by arithmeticians by their tenth
character, which represents nothing. And its power does not extend to
the things of nature.

That which is called nothingness is found only in time and in words: in
time it is found in the past and future, and not in the present; and
thus in words among things which are said to be nonexistent or
impossible. In time nothingness dwells in the past and the futur