THE EARTH. 



which is water in another state, is very elastic. 

 A stone, flung slantingly along the surface of 

 a pond, bounds from the water several times; 

 which shows it to be elastic also. But the 

 trials of Mr. Canton have put this past all 

 doubt ; which being somewhat similar to those 

 of the great Boyle, who pressed it with weights 

 properly applied, carry sufficient conviction. 



What has been hitherto related, is chiefly 

 applicable to the element of water alone ; but 

 its fluidity is a property that it possesses in 

 common with several other substances, in 

 other respects greatly differing from it. That 

 quality which gives rise to the definition of 

 the fluid, namely, that its parts are in a con- 

 tinual intestine motion, seems extremely ap- 

 plicable to water. What the shapes of those 

 parts are, it would be vain to attempt to dis- 

 cover. Every trial only shows the futility of 

 the attempt; all we find is, that they are ex- 

 tremely minute ; and that they roll over each 

 other with the greatest ease. Some, indeed, 

 from this property alone, have not hesitated 

 to pronounce them globular; and we have, 

 in all our hydrostatical books, pictures of 

 these little globes in a state of sliding and 

 rolling over each other. But all this is merely 

 the work of imagination; we know that sub- 

 stances of any kind, reduced very small, as- 

 sume a fluid appearance, somewhat resem- 

 bling that of water. Mr. Boyle, after finely 

 powdering and sifting a little dry powder of 

 plaister of Paris, put it in a vessel over the 

 fire, where it soon began to boil like water, 

 exhibiting all the motions and appearances of 

 a boiling liquor. Although but a powder, the 

 parts of which we know are very different 

 from each other, and just as accident has 

 formed them, yet it heaved in great waves 

 like water. Upon agitation, a heavy body will 

 sink to the bottom, and a light one emerge to 

 the top. There is no reason, then, to suppose 

 the figure of the parts of water round, since 

 we see their fluidity very well imitated by a 

 composition, the parts of which are of various 

 forms and sizes. The shape of the parts of 

 water, therefore, we must be content to con- 

 tinue ignorant of. All we know is, that earth, 

 air, and fire, conduce to separate the parts 

 from each other. 



Earthy substances divide the parts from 

 each other, and keep them asunder. This 



division may be so great, that the water will 

 entirely lose its fluidity thereby. Mud, pot- 

 ter's clay, and dried bricks, are but so many 

 different combinations of earth and water: 

 each substance in which the parts of water 

 are most separated from each other, appear- 

 ing to be the most dry. In some substances, 

 indeed, where the parts of water are greatly 

 divided, as in porcelain, for instance, it is no 

 easy matter to recover and bring them to- 

 gether again; but they continue in a manner 

 fixed and united to the manufactured clay. 

 This circumstance led Doctor Cheney into a 

 very peculiar train of thinking. He sus- 

 pected that the quantity of water, on the 

 surface of the earth, was daily decreasing. 

 For, says he, some parts of it are continually 

 joined to vegetable, animal, and mineral sub- 

 stances, which no art can again recover. 

 United with these, the water loses its fluidity; 

 for if, continues he, we separate a few parti- 

 cles of any fluid, and fasten them to a solid 

 body, 6r keep them asunder, they will be 

 fluid no longer. To produce fluidity, a con- 

 siderable number of such particles are re- 

 quired ; but here they are close, and destitute 

 of their natural properties. Thus, according 

 to him, the world is growing every day harder 

 and harder, and the earth firmer and firmer; 

 and there may come a time when every ob- 

 ject around us may be stiffened in universal 

 frigidity ! However, we have causes enough 

 of anxiety in this world already, not to add 

 this preposterous concern to the number. 



That air also contributes to divide the parts 

 of water, we can have no manner of doubt ; 

 some have even disputed whether water be 

 not capable of being turned into air. How- 

 ever, though this cannot be allowed, it must 

 be granted, that it may be turned into a sub- 

 stance which greatly resembles air (as we 

 have seen in the experiment of the aeolipile) 

 with all its properties ; except that, by cold, 

 this new-made air may be condensed again 

 into water. 



But of all the substances which tend to 

 divide the parts of water, fire is the most 

 powerful. Water, when heated into steam, 

 acquires such force, and the parts of it tend 

 to fly off from each other with such violence, 

 that no earthly substance we know of is strong 

 to confine them. A single drop of 



enough 



