Catalogue Entry: THEM00227

Dr. Clarke's First Reply

Author: Samuel Clarke

Source: A Collection of Papers, Which passed between the late Learned Mr. Leibniz, and Dr. Clarke, In the Years 1715 and 1716, Samuel Clarke (ed.) (London: 1717).

[Normalized Text] [Diplomatic Text]

[1] The Passage referred to is as follows. Annon Sensorium Animalium, est Locus cui Substantia sentiens adest, & in quem sensibiles rerum Species per nervos & cerebrum deferuntur, ut ibi præsentes à præsente sentiri possint? Atque – – – –annon ex Phænomenis constat, esse Entem Incorporeum, Viventem, Intelligentem, Omnipræsentem, qui in Spatio infinito, Tanquam Sensorio suo, Res Ipsas intime cernat, penitusque perspiciat, totasque intra se præsens præsentes complectatur; quarum quidem rerum, Id quod in Nobis sentit & cogitat, Imagines tantum ad se per Organa Sensuum delatas, in Sensoriolo suo percipit & contuetur? i.e. Is not the Sensory of Animals the Place where the Perceptive Substance is present, and To which the Sensible Images of Things are convey'd by the Nerves and Brain that they may there be Perceived, as being Present to the Perceptive Substance? And do not the Phænomena of Nature show that there is an Incorporeal, Living Intelligent, Omnipresent Being who in the Infinite Space, which is as it were His Sensorium (or Place of Perception,) sees and discerns in the inmost and most Thorough Manner, the Very Things themselves, and comprehends them as being entirely and immediately Present within Himself; Of which Things the Perceptive and Thinking Substance that is in Us, perceives and views in its Little Sensory, nothing but the Images, conveyed thither by the Organs of the Senses? Newtoni Optice, Quæst. 20. pag. 315.

[2] See Appendix, No 1.

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