4 THEORY OF THE FIRMAMENT. 



genera of regions, and, as it were, three stages, as relate 

 to the region in which flame i extinguished, the region in 

 which flame disperses itself; moreover, to quibble about 

 contiguity and continuity in soft and flowing bodies, would 

 be an utter vulgarism. Nevertheless that point should be 

 understood, namely, that nature is accustomed to advance 

 to spaces by gradual steps, then, of a sudden, by leaps, 

 and to alternate this sort of process, otherwise no fabric 

 could be formed did she always proceed by insensible de 

 grees; for what a jump as respects the expansion of matter 

 is there from water to air, even ever so dense or clouded, 

 and yet these bodies, so different in their nature, are joined 

 together in position and supei ficies without any medium or 

 interposing distance : nor is it a less leap as to a substan 

 tial nature, from the region of the air to the region of the 

 moon ; in like manner, a prodigious one from the firma 

 ment. Wherefore if any one shall have taken for con 

 tinuous and contiguous, not from the manner of their 

 annexation, but from the diversity of the bodies con 

 nected, those three regions we have spoken of, they can 

 only be held for contiguous in their limits. 



But now it is time to notice, in a clear and explicit 

 manner, the amount and nature of what this our theory, 

 relating to the substance matters of a system, may estab 

 lish, as also of what it may give the negative to, in order 

 that it may be maintained or overthrown. It denies that 

 vulgar opinion, that flame is air ignited, by affirming that 

 those two bodies, air and flame, are clearly heterogeneous, 

 like water and oil, sulphur and mercury. It negatives 

 that vacuum coacervatum held by Gilbert, to obtain among 

 the scattered spheres, but affirms that the spaces are filled 

 either with aerial or a flamy nature. It denies that the 

 moon is an aqueous, or a dense, or a solid body, but affirms 

 that it is of a flamy nature, though it be gentle withal and 

 weak, being indeed the first rudiment and the last sedi 

 ment of ccelestial flame; since flame, (according to its 

 density), no less than air and liquids, admits of innu 

 merable degrees. It establishes that flame, justly and 

 freely posited, becomes fixed and subsists, no less than air 

 and water; nor is it a momentary thing, and only suc 

 cessive in its bulk, by renewal and feeding, as is the case 

 here with us. It maintains that flame has a natural ten 

 dency to go and collect itself into globes, after the manner 

 of an earthy nature, but not at all like air and water, 



