STUDY IX. 



^37 



by their own vegetation. The Sea would be inca* 

 pable of breaking madrépores of wood, and the 

 air of dilTolving forefts of ftone. 



The fame doubts might be ftarted, refpeding 

 the nature of Water. This element, we allege, is 

 formed of fmall globules, which roll one over an- 

 other; that it is to the fpherical form of it's ele- 

 mentary particles we ought to afcribe it's fluidity. 

 But if thefe are globules, there muft be between 

 them intervals and vacuities, without which they 

 could not be fufceptible of motion. How comes 

 it to pafs, then, that water is incompreflible ? If 

 you apply to it a flrong comprcffing power in a 

 tube, it will force it's way through the pores of 

 that tube, though it be of gold j and will burfl it, if 

 of iron. Employ wliat efforts you pleafe, you will 

 find it impoffible to reduce it to a fmaller fize* 

 But fo far from knowing the form of it's compo- 

 nent parts, we cannot fo much as determine that 

 of the combined whole. Does it confift in being 

 expanded into invifible vapours in the air, as the 

 dew, or colledted into mift in the clouds, or con- 

 folidated into mafTes in the ice, or finally, in a 

 fluid flate, as in the rivers. Fluidity, it is faid, 

 forms one of it's principal characters. Yes, be- 

 caufe we drink it in that ftate, and becaufe, under 

 this relation, it intercfts us the moft. We deter- 

 mine it's principal character, as we do that of all 



the 



