MicROGRAPHIA. 
fenfe very sharp ) appears a broad,blunt,and very irregular end not isi 
bling aCone, as is imagin‘d, but onely a piece of a tapering body, witha 
paisiat fae of the top remov'd, or deficient. The Points of Pins are yet 
more 
do very feldome arrive at fo great a fharpnefs; how much therefore can 
be builr'upon demonfttaticns made onely by the productions of the Ru- 
tunt, and the Points of the moft curious Mathematital Inftruments — 
oa itl 
ler aid COmpafiés, he will be better able to confider that fhallbut view 
thofe points and lines with a Aicrofcope. 
Now though this point bé commonly accounted the fharpeft (whence — : 
when we would exprefsthe fharphefs of a'‘point the molt fuperlatively, we 
fay, As fharp as a Needle) yet the AZcrofcope can afiord us hundreds of In- 
{tances of Points many thoufand timestharper: fuch as thofe of the Aairs, 
and drift and claws of multitudes of Infects; thethorns, or crooks, or. — 
teaves, and other {mall vegetables; nay, the ends of the fizrie or 
{mall parallelipipeds of Amianthus , and alumen plumofum; of many of — 
wenip oap Ouethey oines are fo fharpas not to be vifible, though viewd — 
witha 
hairs 
+ i 
icrofcope (Whieh magnifies the Object, in bulk, abovea million of 
times) yet I doubt not, but were weiable practically to make Adicrofcopes 
according to the theory of them, we might find hills, and dales,and pores, 
and a fufhcient bredth, or expanfion, to give all thofe parts elbow-room, 
even inthe blunt top of the veryPoint of any of thefe fo very fharp bodies, 
For certainly the guantity or extenfion of any body may be Divifible ix in- 
finitum, though perhaps not the matter, YY 
But to proceed: The Image we have here exhibited in the 
firft Figure, was the top of a imall and very fharp Needle; ;whofe 
-1.9 \ pointix:a neverthelefS appear’d: through the  AGcrofcope above 
quarter/of an inch broad, not round nor flat, but arregular and uw 
evem; foithat it feemd to have been big enough to have affordeda a 
hundred armed Mites'room enough to be rang’d by each other wit 
endangering the breaking one anothers necks, by being thruft off one 
therfide. The furface of which, though appearing to the naked eye'very 
fmooth,could not neverthelefs hide a multitude of holes and {cratches and. 
ruggednefies from being difcover'd by the Aécrofcope to invett it, feveral 
of which inequalities.(as A,B,C, feem’d holes made by fome fmall{pecksof 
Ruft;and D fome adventitious body, that {tuck very clofe to it) were ca- 
fual.. A\l'the reft that roughen the furface, were onely fo many marks of 
the rudenefs and bungling of Art. So unaccurate is it, in all its produdtie 
ons, evenin thofe which feem moft neat, that if examin'd with an organ 
more.acute then that by which they were made, the more we fee of their 
Shape, the lefs appearance will there be of their beauty + whereas in the 
works of Nature, the deepeft Difccveries fhew us the greateft Excellen- 
cies: «An evident Argument, that he that was the Author ‘of all thefe 
things, was no other then Ommipotent ; being able to include as great a va- 
riety of parts and contrivances in the yet fialleft Di(cernable Point, as in 
thofe vafter bodies (which comparatively are called alfo Points) fuch as 
theEarth, Sun, or Planets. Nor need it feem f{trange that the Earth it felf 
may be by an. Avalogze call’d a'Phyfical Point:For as its body,though now 
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