STUDY IX. 241 



Thefe difficulties, and fcveral others, induced 

 Newton to believe that fire was not an element, 

 but certain fubtile matter put in motion. Fric- 

 tion, it is true, and coilifion, elicit fire fi-om feveral 

 bodies. But how comes it, that air and water, 

 though agitated ever fo much, never catch fire ? 

 Nay, How comes it that water even gets cold by 

 motion, though it's fluidity is entirely owing to 

 it's being impregnated by fire ? Contrary to the 

 nature of all other motions, Wherefore does that 

 of fire goon in a confiant ftate of propagation, in- 

 ftead of meeting a check. All bodies lofe their 

 motion by communicating it. If you ftrike feveral 

 billiard balls with one, the motion is communi- 

 cated among them, it is divided and loft. But a 

 fmgle fpark of fire difengages from a piece of 

 wood, the igneous particles, or the fubtile matter 

 if you will, which are contained in it, and the 

 whole together increafe their rapidity to fuch a 

 degree, as to make one vaft conflagration of a 

 whole forefl;. 



We are not better acquainted with the negative 

 qualities. Cold, they tell us, is produced by the 

 abfence of heat : but if cold is merely a negative 

 quality. How is it capable of producing pofitive 

 efFeds ? If you put into water a bottle of iced 

 wine, as I have {^tn done in Ruflia, oftencr than 



VOL. II. R once. 



