Chap. 16. *st Treatife of BODIES. , 77 



in fubftancc, it would be in what the thing is;and confcquently, 

 every divifion following that divifibility, would make the thing 

 another 7v/>.tf,that is another thing. And fo the fubftance that is 

 pretended to be changed by intenfion er remiffion, would not be 

 divided, as is fuppofed, but would ceafe to be, and another fub- 

 ftance would fiicceed in the room of it. Whereby you fee that 

 every mutation in fubftancc^maketh anew thing: and that more 

 and lefTe in quiddity cannot be pronounced of the fame thing. 



Likewife in quantity, it is clear that its Speciefes do confift in 

 an indivifible : for as in numbers, ten lions (for example) or ten 

 Elephants are no more in regard of multitude then ten flees or 

 ten motes in the funne ; and if you adde or take any thing from 

 ten,it is no more ten, but fome other numbenfo likewife in con- 

 tinued extenfion, a (pan, an ell, an ounce, or any other meafure 

 whatfbever,ceafeth to be a fpan and the reft, if you adde to it or 

 diminifli from it the leaft quantity Imaginable. And perad ven- 

 ture, the fame is alfo of figures, as of a fphere, a cube, a circle, a 

 fquare,&c. though they be in the rankc of qualities. 



But if we coniider fuch qualities as heat, cold, moyfture, dri- 

 ncfleJbftnefre 3 hardneflV,weight>lightne(re,andthe likcjwe fhall 

 find that they may be in any body fomctimes more, fbmetimes 

 lefle, ( according as the excefle of any Element or mixture is 

 greater in it, at one time then at another) and yet the body in 

 which theft qualities are intended or remitted, remain ftill with 

 the fame denomination. As when durt continueth ftill foft, 

 though fbmetimes it be leflc fbft,other whiles fofterjand wax re- 

 maineth figurable, whether it be melted or congealedjand wood 

 is ftill hot though it lofe or gain fomc degree of heat. 



But fuch intenfion in any fubjecl: whatfocver hath its determi- 

 nate limits that it cannot paflc ; for when more of that quality 

 that we fay is intendcd(that is, more of the atomcs of the active 

 bodyjis brought into the body that fuflFereth the intenfion, then 

 its complexion can brook; it refigncth its nature to thair violence 

 and becometh a new thing ; fuch an one as they arepleafed to 

 make it. As when wood,with extremity ofheating(thatis, with 

 bringing into it fo many atomcs of fire, that the fire is ftronger 

 in it then its own nature) is converted into fire, fmoke, water, 

 and afhes; and nothing remaineth of the nature of wood. 

 But before we end this chapter, we may remember how in the 



M cloTc 



