44 A Treaties ^/"BODIES. Chap. ?. 



ry Moods to unite a body to the place it is m, vvhen their own 

 nature maketh them one as foon as they are immediate to each 

 other. And accordingly if when we fee a boul move, we would 

 examine the caufes of that motion, we mutt confider the quanti- 

 ty of aire or water it maketh to break from the parts next unto 

 it, to give place unto it felf: and not fpeculate upon an intrinfe- 

 call relation from the body to a certain part of the imaginary 

 fpacc they will have to run through all things. And by ballan- 

 cing that quantity of aire or water which it dividech , we may- 

 arrive to make an eftimate of what force the boul needeth to 

 have for its motion. 



5. Thus having declared that the locality of motion is but an 



All operations extrinfccall denomination, and no reality in the thing moved- 



amonou bodies, n n ' , & 



arc either local \ve may now caft an eye upon a rait confequence that may be 



fuch ^,^(1 out of what we hare hitherto faid. For if we confider 



as follow out ot i i . i i i j i 



local! motiwi. the nature ot a body, that is that a body is a body by quantity; 

 and that the forrnall notion of quantiry is nothing die but divi- 

 fibility; and that the adequate acl: of divifibility is divifion: it is 

 evident there can be no other operation upon quantity, nor (by 

 confequence^ among bodies, but muft cither be fuch divifion as 

 we have here explicated, or what muft necetfarily follow out of 

 fuch divifion. And divifion ( as we have even now explicated ) 

 being locall motion; it is evident, tha: all operations among bo- 

 dies are either locall motion, or fuch as follow out of locall mo- 

 tion. Which conclufion, howfocver unexpected, and may at 

 the firft hearing appear a Paradox, will nevertheleffe by the 

 enfumg work receive fuch evidence as it cannot be doubted 

 of; and chat not onely by force of argumentation and' by 

 neceflRtic of notions ( as is already deduced } but alfb by 

 experience , and by declaration of particulars as they (hall 

 occurre. 



6- But now to apply what we have faid to our propofcd fub- 



J C( ^ ; lt * s obvious to every man, that fccing the divider is the a- 

 g en t in divifion and in locall motion; and that denle bodies are 

 by their nature diyiders ; the earth muft in that regard be the 

 mott aftive among the elements , fince it is the moft dcnle of 

 them all. But this feemeth to be againft the common judgement 

 of all the fcarchcrs o^naturc, who unanimoufly agree that fire is 

 thc^rnoft active clement. As alfo it fectneth to irnpugne what we 



our 



