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The Principles of Bodies. Book IV. 

Bells ina Steeple, making a pitiful Chime: but tryeth to rife up to 
Natures own Number, and {fo to ring all the Changes in the World. 
6. §. Yet doth not this vaft Djverfity take away the Regiment and 
Subordination of Principles. There being a certain lefler zamber of 
them , which either by their greater quantity, or other ways, have 
Rule and Dominion, in their feveral Orders, over all the reft. For 
where-ever the Subje is Multitude, Order is part of its Perfecfion. For 
Order is Proportion, And how can Nature be imagin’d:to hold Propor- 
tion in all things elfe, and not here ? Wherefore, as certainly, as Or- 
der and Government are in all the Parts of the Rational ; fo certainly, 
of the Material World. Whence it is, That although the species of 
Principles be very numerows 5 yet the Principles called Galenical, Chy- 
ical, or any others, which do any way fall under the notice of 
Senf, are notwithftanding reduceable to a fmaller number : viz, according 
to the xumeber of Predominant Principles in Natures or,rather in this part 
of the Uxiverfe which is near and round about w. To the Power and 
Empire whereof, all other Principles do fubmit. Which submilfion, is 
not the quitting of their own Nature 5 but only their appearance under 
the external Face or Habit of the (aid Predominant Principles. 
7. §. Asthere can be no Order of Principles, without Dieerjity ; 
fo no Diverfity, but what is originally made by thefe two ways ; fe. by 
Size and Figure, By thee they may be exceeding different : and all 
other Properties befides, whereby they differ, muft be dependent upon 
thefe Two. : 
8. §. Nor therefore, can they be ofany other Figures, than what 
are Regular, For Regularity, is a Sinilitude continw'd. Since there- 
foreall kinds of Atomes are divers only by their Size and Figure 5 if 
the felfe fame Size and Figure were not common toa certain number of 
Atomes, they could not befaid to be of any one kind: and confequent- 
ly, if there were no Similitude of Atomes, there could be no Djffin- 
“ion of Principles, : 
9. §. Hence alfo, thefe two Modes of Atomes, viz. their Size and 
Figure, are the true, and only original Qualities of Atomes, Thatis, 
an Atome is fuch or fich, becaufe ft is of fucha certain Size and Fi- 
gure. 
Io. §. Laftly, Asthefe two Modes, taken feverally, are the Qua- 
ities of an Atome: fo confider'd together, they are its Form. A fub- 
Stantial Form of a Body, being an unintelligible thing. I fay of a 
Body for although the Rational Soul bea fubftantial Forn , yet is 
itthe Form of a Man, and not of a Body. "For the Form of a Body, 
we can conceive of no otherwife, thanas of the Modification of 4 Body, 
or a Complexion of all the Modes of a Body. Which alfo agrees with 
that Definition of a Form, whichamongft the Peripatetick Philofophers 
is well enough accepted,viz. Quod lit, Ratio ejus Effentia, qua cuique Rei 
competit. Which Ratio, if it be referred to a Body, what isit,but the 
Modification of that Body 2 Having thus propofed aSummary of my 
Thoughts about Principles; 1 thal! next proceed to fhew what their 
Mixture is. 
CHAP, 

