Io g A Trutifetf BODIES. Chap, IT. 



the defcending atomes fliould more the whole denlity ofa bo- 

 dy ; even though it were fo den(c that they could not penetrate 

 it, and get into the bowels of it ; but mutt be content to ftrike 

 barely upon the outfide of it. For nature hath io ordered the 

 matter, that when dcnie parts ftick cloie together^ and make the 

 length compoied of them to be very ftiff; one cannot be moved 

 but that all the reft ( which arc in that line ) muft likewife be 

 t'.ereby moved: fo that if all the world were compofod of atoms 

 clole fticking together> the leaft motion imaginable muft drive 

 on all that were in a ftraight line, to the very end of the world. 

 This you fee is evident in rcafon, and experience confirmeth ic, 

 when by a little knock given at the end ofa long beam, the flia- 

 king (which maketh found) reacheth fenfibly to the other end. 

 The blind man that governeth hisfteps by feeling in defect of 

 eyes, receiveth ad vertiiements of remote things through a ft aft' 

 which he holdeth in his hands, peradventure more particularly 

 then his eyes could have directed him. And the like is of a deaf 

 mnn that heareth the found of an inftrument, by holding one 

 end of a ftick in his mouth, whiles the other end refteth upon 

 the inftrument. And fomc are of opinion (and they not of the 

 rank of vulgar Philofophers ) that if a ftaff were as Jong as to 

 reach from the funne to us, it would have the fame enSeft in a 

 moment of time. Although for my part I am hard to believe 

 that we could receive an advertifcment fo farre, unlefle the ftaff 

 were of fuch a thicknefieas being proportinable to the length 

 might keep ic from facile bending : for if it fliould be very ply- 

 ant it would do us no lervicc: as we experience in a thrid,which 

 reaching from our hand to the ground, if it knock againft any 

 thing, maketh no fenfible impreflion in our hand. 



So tbat in fine, reafon fenfe and authority do all of them 

 fhew us, that the lefle the atomes fliould penetrate into amoving 

 body, by reafon of the extreme dcnhty of it, the more eflRca- 

 ctoiifly they would work, and the greater celerity they would 

 caufc in its motion. And hence we may give the fulleft fblution 

 Co the objection above,which was to this erTedrthat feeing divifi - 

 on is made onely by the fupcrfTcies or exteriour part of the dcn*e 

 body ; and that the virtue whereby a denfc body doth work, is 

 onely its refinance to divifion; which maketh it apt to dividerit 

 would follow that a hollow bowl of brafifc or iron fliould be as 



hca- 



