OF THE PROPERTIES OF MATTER. 3 



taken away, the bowl would go on without any friction, LEC T 

 and consequently without any diminution of the velocity 

 it had at setting out : and therefore, if the green were 

 extended quite around the earth, the bowl would go on, 

 round and round the earth, for ever. 



If the bowl were carried several miles above the earth, 

 and there projected in a horizontal direction, with such 

 a velocity as would make it move more than a semidia- 

 meter of the earth, in the time it would take to fall to 

 the earth by gravity ; in that case, and if there were no 

 resisting medium in the way, the bowl would not fall to 

 the earth at all ; but would continue to circulate round 

 it, keeping always in the same tract, and returning to 

 the same point from which it was projected, with the 

 same velocity as at first. In this manner the moon goes 

 round the earth, although she be as inactive and dead 

 as any stone upon it. 



The third property of matter is mobility; for we find Mobility, 

 that all matter is capable of being moved, if a sufficient 

 degree of force be applied to overcome its inactivity or 

 resistance. 1 



The fourth property of matter is divisibility, of which Divisibl 

 there can be no end. For, since matter can never be " 

 annihilated by cutting or breaking, we can never imagine 

 it to be cut into such small particles, but that if one of 

 them be laid on a table, the uppermost side of it will be 

 further from the table than the undermost side. More- 



Aofe 2. Mobility is here very justly considered as a universal pro- 

 perty of matter, and this law does not apply merely to matter in the 

 abstract, as illustrations of its universality may be found in every 

 part of created nature. Heat expands, and cold contracts the size of 

 most bodies, and as we know from experience, that the temperature 

 of the atmosphere is continually varying, it will be evident that the 

 various panicles with which it comes in contact must be in con- 

 tinual agitation. This then may be considered as one of the causes 

 which tend to produce a species of perpetual motion upon the surface 

 of the earth; the application of mechanical force which is more ob- 

 vious will be treated of in a future page. 

 B 2 



