rfo -^ Treatifi of B O D I E S. Chap. 7. 



bcfidesi that it is clogged with no grofTe body to hinder the 

 a&ivity of it. 



3. It feemeth to me now, that the very anfvvering this objeAU 



The experience on doth (beildes repelling the force of it ) evidently prove that 



of burning- ga<- . i c i_- j j- i j- 



s, and ofiouf. light is nothing but hre in his own nature, and exceedingly cli- 

 " latcd: for if you fuppofc fire (for example,thc flame of a candle) 

 be fire, to be ftretched oiit to the utitioft expanfion that you may well 

 imagine fuch a grofle body is capable of; it is impoffibJc it 

 fhould appear and work otherwife then it doth in light, as I 

 have fheu-ed above. And again, we fee plainly that light ga- 

 thered together burneth more forcibly then any other fire what- 

 ibever, and therefore mutt needs be fire. 



Why then fhall we not confidently conclude, that what is 

 fire before it getteth abroad , and is fire again when it cometh 

 together, doth likewife remain fire during all its journey . ? Nay, 

 even in the journey it felf we have particular teftimony that it 

 is fire: for light returning back from the earth charged with lit- 

 tle atomes (as it doth in Tbultry gloomy weather) heateth much 

 more then before; juft as fire doth when it is imprifoned in a 

 dcnfc body. 



. Philofophers ought not to judge by the fame rules that the 



pherj common people doth. Their grofle fenfc is all their guide: and 

 udge of' 'thtnss therefore they cannot apprehend any thing to be fire, that doth 

 bytheruiesof not make it felf be known for fuch by burning them. But he 



vu'gar people. _ .11 i 



that judicioufiy exammeth the matter, and traceth the pedigree 

 and period of it; andfeeththc reafon why in ibmecircumftan- 

 ces it burneth, and in others it doth not; is too blame, if he fufl 

 fer himfclf to be led by others ignorance contrary to his owa 

 reafon. When they that are curious in perfumes>will have their 

 chamber filled with a good fent in a hot feafon that agrceth not 

 with burning perfumes, and therefore make fbme odoriferous 

 water be blown about it by their (ervants mouths that are dex- 

 terous in that miniftery , fasisufedin Spain in the fummer 

 time;) every one that feeth it done, though on a fudden the wa- 

 ter be loft to his eyes and touch , and is onely dilcernable by 

 his nofe ; yet he is well fatisfied that the fent which recrcateth 

 him, is the very water he faw in the glafTc cxtremly dilated 

 by the forcible fproutmg of it out from the fervants mouth, 

 and will by little and litcle fall down and become again pal- 

 pable 



