16 Mechanical Philosophy. [Chap. L 



tended to instruct ns in all physical as well as 

 moral and spiritual truth : that the Hebrew text 

 of the Bible is not only, in every respect, entire, 

 as it came from God; but also that every word of 

 it is pregnant with philosophical, as well as theo- 

 logical, meaning. Hence his hypothesis is chiefly 

 founded on arbitrary and fanciful interpretations 

 of Hebrew words, from the hidden meaning of 

 which he and his followers supposed themselves to- 

 have drawn the richest stores of various kinds of 

 knowledge. 



According to Hutchinson, " all things are con- 

 tained in the substance of God, and his substance 

 extends to infinite space. Heaven and earth, 

 space and matter, are created things, and consist 

 of solid atoms; those of the earth adhering in 

 bodies or dense fluids — those of Heaven in orbs, 

 darkness, fire, light, and clouds. The universe is 

 full of these solid atoms: in other words, crea- 

 tion is a plenum. The matter of the heavens is 

 fluid ; it is also tniite, and has circumferential 

 limits or extremities, though it extends through 

 all created space, from the sun, its centre, beyond 

 the remotest fixed stars. This matter of the hea- 

 vens consists of sphi't, or air, light and ^fire, as 

 three of its principal modifications. The sun is 

 the fire-place which sets all this matter in motion, 

 melting, expanding, and throwing it off to the 

 most distant confines of creation, where it is 

 cooled, consolidated, and pressed back again, to 

 be melted anew, and sent forth a second time; 

 and so on. The solid atoms are of different sizes 

 and figures ; so that, when one portion of them 

 congeals, or forms into grains, there arc pores 



