$6 A rreAtife cf B O D I E S. Chap. 7. 



its reflexions : and the fame dcmonftration doth alike convince 

 the one and the other. Befides, light is broken like a body- as 

 when it is fnappcd in pieces by a tougher body. It is gathered 

 together into a little room by looking or burning glafTes ; as 

 \\ateris, by ordering the gutters of a houfe fb as to bring into 

 one cittern all that raincth difpeifedly upon the whole roof. It 

 is fevered and difperfed by other glaffes ; and is to be wrought 

 upon, and caft hither and thither at pleafure ; all by the rule of 

 other bodies. And what is done in light , the fame will hke- 

 \vife be done in heat, in cold, in wind, and in found. And the 

 very fame inftruments that are made for light , will work their 

 cffc&s in all thefe others, if they be duly managed. 



So that certainly, were it not for the authority of Ari- 

 ttotle and of his learned followers that prcfleth us on the one 

 fide ; and for the feemingnelfe of thofe reafbns we have alrea- 

 dy mentioned, which perfwadeth us on the other fide ; our 

 very eyes would carry us by ftream into thii content, that 

 light is no other thing but the nature and fubftance of fire, 

 fpred farre and wide, and treed from the mixture of all other 

 grofle bodies. Which will appear yet more evident in the foluti- 

 ons of the oppofitions we have brought againft our own opini- 

 on : for in them there will occurrc other arguments of no 

 lefle importance to prove this verity, then thcie we have al- 

 ready propofed. 



CHAP. VII. 



Two obicttioHS anftvered againft light being fire, with 4 more 

 awp/ff proof of its being fuch. 



TT Aving then faid thus much to pcrfwade us of the corpo- 

 Thar aii'iight ij A J reity of this fubtile thing, that fo queintly playech with 

 hot and apt to O ur eyes : we will in the next place eiaminc thole objections 

 that a: the beginning we did fct down againft its being a body: 

 and if after a through difcuflion of them, we. find they do in 

 truth conclude nothing of what at the firft fight they bear fo 

 great a fhew of; but that we fliall be able perfectly to fblve and 

 cncrvc their force; no body will think it rafhneflc in ui to crave 

 leave of Arittotlc that we may difTcnt from him in a matter thar 

 lie hath not looked to the bottom of; and whoic opinion therein 



can 



