Chap. 19. ^Trftfi/eofftODIES. 217 



commended, when they arc witty ones, and do proceed from a 

 cafting further about then the beaten track of verball learnirtg, 

 or rather terms which explicate not the nature of the thing in 

 qiieftion. He faith that the coming of ftraws and fuch other Jight 

 bodies unto amber, jet, and the like, proceedeth from a wind 

 raifed by the forcible breaking out of fubtile emanations from 

 the Ele&ricall bodies into the aire, which bringeth thofe light 

 bodies along with it to the Eleclricall ones. 



But this difcourfe cannot hold : for firft, it is not the nature 

 ofun&iious emanations (generally fpeakingj tocaufc fmart 

 motions fingly of themfelves. Secondly, although they fliould 

 raife a wind, I do not comprehend how this wind fhould drive 

 bodies dire&ly back to the fource that raifed it; but rather any 

 other way; and fo confequently, fliould drive the light bodies it 

 meeteth with in its way 3 rather from,then towards the Electrical! 

 body. Thirdly, if there fhould be frch a wind raifed,& it fhould 

 bring light bodies to the Ele6l:ricall ones; yet it could not make 

 them ftiek thereunto, which we fee they do, turn them which 

 way you will, as though they were glewed together. 



Neither do his experiences convince any thing; for what he 

 faith that the light bodies are fbmetimes brought to the Ele&ri- 

 call body with fuch a violence, that they rebound back from it, 

 and then return again to it, makcth rather againft him : for if 

 wind were the caufe of their motion, they would not return a- 

 gain, after they had leaped back from the Ele&ricall body; no 

 more then we can imagine that the wind it (elf doth. 



The like is of his other experience, when he obferved that 

 fome little grains of faw-duft hanging at an Elcclricall body, 

 the furthermoft of them not onely fell off, but feemed to be dri- 

 ven away forcibly: for they did not fall directly down, but fide- 

 wayes; and befides did flie away with a violence and finartnefle 

 that argued fbme ftrong impulff. The reafon whereof u,ight be, 

 that new emanations might finite them, which not flicking and 

 fattening upon them, whereby to draw them nearer, muft needs 

 pufli them furthcnor it might be that the emanations unto which 

 they were glewed, fhrinking back unto their main body, the la- 

 ter grains were fliouldercd off by others that already beficgeti the 

 fuperficies; and then the emanations retiring fwiftly the grains 

 muft break off with a forcc:or els we may conceive it was the force 



of 



