120 ATrtAtift of BODIES. Chap.ii. 



dcnfity includcth a lefpeft fingly to the body that ftriketh it. 



NOW it is no wonder that this change of comparifon work- 

 cth adifparity in the denominations: and that thereby the fame 

 body may be conceived to be more or lefTe impartible,then it is 

 aflive or heavy. As for example, let us of a denfe Element take 

 any one leaft part, which muft of neceffity be in its own nature 

 and kind absolutely impartible: and yet it is evident that the 

 gravity of this part muft be exceeding little by reafbn of the 

 I ittlencffe of its quantity; fo that thus you fee an extremity of 

 the efteS of denfity , joyncd together in one body ( by the acci- 

 dent of the littlenefTc of it ) with a contrary extremity of the ef- 

 fect ofgravity,(or rather witli the want ofit)each ofthem with- 

 in the limits of the fame fpecies. In like manner it happeneth, 

 that the fame body in one circumitance is more weighty, in an- 

 other(or rather in the contrary / is more partible : fo water 

 xvhen it is in a pail , becaufe it is thereby hindered from 

 fpreading abroad hath the effect ofgravity predominating in it; 

 but ifit be poured out, it hath theerfeft ofpartibilhy more.And 

 thus it happeneth that merely by the gradation of rarity & den- 

 fity.one denfe body may be apt.out of the gcnerall courfe of na- 

 turall caufes, to be more divifible then to be a divider; though, 

 according to the nature of the degrees confidered abfolutely in 

 themfelves, what is more powertiill to divide, is alfb more re/i- 

 ftent and harder to be divided. And :his arriveth in that decree 

 f which niaketh water; for the falling and beating of the atomes 

 upon water.hath the power both to divide it and to make it de- 

 fcend;but fb,that by making it de/cend it dividcth it. And there- 

 fore we fay that it hath more gravity then denfity, though it be 

 the very denfity of it,which is the caufc that maketh it partible, 

 by the working of one part upon another: for if the atomes did 

 not find the body fb denfe as it is, they could not by their beat- 

 ing upon one part make another be divided. 



So that a denfe body to be more heavy then denfe, /ignifieth 

 nothing elle, but that it is in fuch a degree of denfity, that fbmc 

 of its own parts by their being afTifted & fct on work by a ge- 

 nerall canfe ( which is the fall of the atomcs) are powerfull e- 

 nough to divide other adjoyning parts of the fame dcnfity with 

 them one from another ; in fuch fbrr as we fee that water pou- 

 red out of an ewer into a bnfin where there is already other wa- 

 ter, hath the powfcr to divide the water in the bafin by the afl?- 



