16 ESSAYS AND OBSERVATIONS 



tiuity pf lights far furpafling all the fuppo- 

 fitions which are ufually made about it. 



5. The chance which any one body has 

 to jurtle with others of like magnitude, is 

 lefTened in proportion to the bulk of the bo- 

 dies with refpedl to the fpace in which they 

 move. It muft be therefore fuppofed, as' 

 we mentioned above, that the diftance of the 

 neareft particles, flowing in the {lime and 

 in different lines, muft exceed their diame- 

 ter, not indeed infinitely, but a number of 

 times utterly incomparable with all our ordi- 

 nary numbers, in order that a particle may 

 efcape in one phyfical point of its progrefs : 

 but, that it may pafs freely on thro' the 

 whole diftance of the remoteft fixed ftars, it 

 is evident, that this proportion of excefs 

 muft be multiplied by a number again incom- 

 parable. But this excefs, fo increafed, muft 

 be raifed to a power whofe exponent is a num- 

 ber equal to the number of all the fixed ftars^ 

 planets, and comets. And laftly, if there is an 

 elaftic medium diffufed thro' the mundane 

 fpace, as the propagation of heat* and ma- 

 ny other phenomena fcem to infinuate 5 this 

 laft number muft be at leaft doubled, if we 



would 



,• Newt. Opt. queries, ad find 



