The reafba 

 wLy m*ny 

 times (ire and 

 heat are depri 

 ved o! Italic. 



A Twtrfe of B O D I E S. Chap. 7, 



without any heat , and therefore light and fire cannot be the 

 fame thing : you may call to mind how denfc bodi are capa- 

 ble of great quantities of rare ones; and thereby it cometh to 

 paflc, that bodies which repugnc to the dilatation of flame, 

 may ncvertheleflc have much fire enclofcd in them. As in i 

 ftove, let the fire be neyer fo great, yet it apncareth not out- 

 wards to the fight, although that ftove warm all the rooms near 

 it : So when many little parts ofheat are imprifoned in as ma- 

 ny little cells of grofle earthly fubftancc, ( which arc like fb 

 many little ftoves to them ) that imprifonment will not hinder 

 them from being very hot to the fcnfc of feeling ( which is moft 

 perceptible of denfc things.) But becaufc they are choaked with 

 the clofenefle of the grofle matter wherein they are cnclofed, 

 they cannot break out into a body of flame or light, fb to dif- 

 cover their nature : which (as we hare (aid before ) is the moft 

 unfit way for burning; for we fee that light muft be condcnfed 

 to produce flame and fire; as flame muft be to burn violently. 



Having thus cleared the third objection, ( as I conceive;) let 

 us go on to the fourth; which requireth that we fatisfic their in- 

 qtr.fition, who ask what becometh of that vaft body of fliining 

 light (if it be a bodyj that fillcth all the diftance between 

 heaven and earth ; and vanifheth in a moment aflbon as a. 

 cloud or the moon interpofeth it lelf between the funne and 

 us, or that the funne quitteth our hemifpherc ? No figne at all 

 remaineth of it after the extinction of it, as doth of all other 

 fubftanees, whofe deftru&ion is the birth of fbme new thing. 

 Whither then is it flown > We may be perfwaded that a myft 

 is a corporeall fubftance, becaufe it turneth to drops of water 

 upon the twigs that it invironeth: and fo we might believe light 

 to be fire , if after the burning of it oat, we found any aflics re- 

 maining; but experience afTureth us, that after it is cxtinguifh- 

 ed, it leavcth not the leaft veftigium behind it of having been 

 there. 



7. Now, before we anfwer this objection , we will entreat our 



of!h" w" 1 ^" 11 a< ^ vcr ^ ar y to ca ^ to m ind, how we hare in bur folution of the 

 light when it former declared and proved that the light, which (for example) 

 fhineth from a candle, is no more then the flanae is, from 

 whence it fpringcth, the one being condcnfed and the other di- 

 lated ; and that the flame is in a perpctuall flux ofconfumption 



dicth. 



