Chap. 4: A Trt4!ife ^/BODIES. 



\\c may with reafon call thofe things denfe, wherein a man 

 findeth a fenfible difficiiltie to part them and thofe rare, where 

 the refinance is imperceptible. * 



And unto thefe two notions of rarity ana denfity, we muft 

 allow a great latitude, farre from confifting in an indivifible 

 (late; for feeing that rarefaction makcth a lefler bodie equall 

 to a bigger ; and that all inequalitie betwixt two bodies, hath 

 the conditions of a bodic ; it followeth that the excefie of one 

 bodic over an other, confifteth of infinite parts into which it 

 might be divided .- and consequently, that what is rarificd, paf- 

 fethasmany degrees as the inequalitie or excefle hath parts. 

 And the fame law being in condenfation, both denfe and rare 

 things muft be acknowledged to be capable of infinite varietie, 

 and diverfity of flates in regard of more and leflc in the fame 

 kind. 



Thefe things being premifed; and calling to mind that it is 2. 

 the nature of dcnhty to make the parts of a denfe thing com- How moi 

 ^paA^ndftick togerher, and be hardly divifible ; and on the tbeeo!te 

 confrary fide, that it is the nature of rarity, to dirrufcand ex- ^"'c bodie*. 

 tend a rare thing, and to prepare and approch it. to divilion, 

 according to the proportion of the degree of rarity which ic 

 hath ; and that weight doth abound where there is exceflfeof 

 denfitie, and is very little or none in excefie of rarity : we imy 

 now begin in our imagination to put thefe qualities into the 

 fcales one againftanother,to fee whatefFec^s they prodi ce in bo- 

 dies. And firft, let us weigh gravity againil denfitie or (licking 

 together of parts: which fticking or compa&ednefle being natu- 

 rall to derjfitie, requireth feme execfle of gravitic in proportion 

 to t e dcnfjty-, or fomc o:her outward violence, to break it. If 

 then in a denfe body the gravity overcome the denfity, and do 

 make the parts of it break afunder,it will draw them down- 

 wards towards the center that gravity tendcch unto, and will 

 never let them reft till they come thither, unleffe fome impedi- 

 ment meet them by the way and flop their journey : fothat 

 fuch a body will, as near as poflibly it can, lie in a perfect fphe- 

 ricall figure in relpecl: of the center and the parts of it will be 

 changed and altered, and thurft on any fide that is the ready 

 way thither ; Co that by the force of gravity working upon it, 

 it will run as farre as it mceteth with nothing to hinder it from 



C attaining 



