cogitative.

If then neither one peculiar atom alone can be this eternal thinking
being; nor all matter, as matter, i. e. every particle of matter, can be
it; it only remains, that it is some certain SYSTEM of matter, duly put
together, that is this thinking eternal Being. This is that which, I
imagine, is that notion which men are aptest to have of God; who would
have him a material being, as most readily suggested to them by the
ordinary conceit they have of themselves and other men, which they take
to be material thinking beings. But this imagination, however more
natural, is no less absurd than the other; for to suppose the eternal
thinking Being to be nothing else but a composition of particles of
matter, each whereof is incogitative, is to ascribe all the wisdom and
knowledge of that eternal Being only to the juxta-position of parts;
than which nothing can be more absurd. For unthinking particles of
matter, however put together, can have nothing thereby added to them,
but a new relation of position, which it is impossible should give
thought and knowledge to them.


17. And whether this corporeal System is in Motion or at Rest.

But further: this corporeal system either has all its parts at rest, or
it is a certain motion of the parts wherein its thinking consists. If it
be perfectly at rest, it is but one lump, and so can have no privileges
above one atom.

If it be the motion of its parts on which its thinking depends, all the
thoughts there must be unavoidably accidental and limited; since all the
particles that by motion cause thought, being each of them in itself