OF SOLIDS AND LIQUIDS. 22S 



nature could be supposed capable of existing, 

 the bond of continuity, by which the different 

 particles of matter are held, and connected 

 together, would be separated and destroyed ; 

 instead of the universe in general, and this 

 world in particular, being intrinsically one 

 WHOLE ; it would, in such a case, consist of as 

 many distinct universes and worlds, as there are 

 .separated parts, or vacua ; and every vacuum 

 would, de facto, constitute one distinct world, 

 or one distinct universe. Until, therefore, such 

 a non-entity can be proved to have an actual 

 subsistence, the word vacuum, as typical and 

 expressive of an idea, without any prototype, 

 or exemplar whatever belonging to it, ought 

 to be blotted out of every dictionary, the 

 doctrine of absolute weight for ever abandoned, 

 and considered a positive absurdity, [t is from 

 principles such as these, that we are enabled 

 to understand the cause, why bodies in general, 

 (whether they be solid, liquid, or gaseous,) are 

 made to undergo a change from a state of equi- 

 librium, to a state of difference of levity, or of 

 gravity, according to the situation in which 

 they are placed. 



As the doctrine of gravitation is intimately 

 connected with the subject I am about to dis- 

 cuss ; and as it is briefly, but clearly stated, by 

 the Rev. S. VINCE, Plumian Professor of As- 

 tronomy, and Experimental Philosophy, at the 



