Note (return) — Chapter XI

It is this "substratum or physical groundwork" which gives a reality and definiteness to the evanescent phantoms of sense, for, in their ceaseless change, they can not justify any title whatever. It alone can be styled "this" or "that" (τόδε or τοῦτο); they rise no higher than "of such kind" or " of what kind or quality" (τοιοῦτον or ὁποιονοῦν τι). 593 It is not earth, or air, or fire, or water, but "an invisible species and formless universal receiver, which, in the most obscure way, receives the immanence of the intelligible." 594 And in relation to the other two principles (i.e., ideas and objects of sense), "it is the mother" to the father and the offspring. 595 But perhaps the most remarkable passage is that in which he seems to identify it with pure space, which, "itself imperishable, furnishes a seat (ἕδραν) to all that is produced, not apprehensible by direct perception, but caught by a certain spurious reasoning, scarcely admissible, but which we see as in a dream; gaining it by that judgment which pronounces it necessary that all which is, be somewhere, and occupy a certain space." 596 This, it will be seen, approaches the Cartesian doctrine, which resolves matter into simple extension. 597