PART Xllt;

( ) Lucret. l9t, cit.
caufe Atoms are folid, foft things cannot made of them , for they may be made foft by intermiftion only of Vacuum , into which the comprelfed parts retire , and yeild to the touch.
( ) add alfo the diver fe forts of conftancy
in nature,, as in carrying on Animals always to certain b6un(ds of ftrengch , augnientation and* life •, in imprinting always the fame diftindions and marks of every particular kind ^ which ihe could not do^if (he did not ufe Principles certain and conftant, and therefore not obnoxious to Diffolution and Mutation.
T
CHAP. VI.
p
0/ the Fropertici of Atoms ^ and firjl , of their Magnitudes.
ALthough all Atoms, by reafon of this foli- nature,yct have they lomeAdjunfts orProperties, ( A ) Laeru and certain {a') ^alities^ by which they may differ among themfelves, fuch only are Magni- tide.^ Figure., and iVe^ht.and if tkn be any be' fide which are neceffarily ally' d to Figure, siS rongh- nefs, and fmoothnefs ^ for Colour^ Heat, Cold, and the reft of the Qualities are not fuch as are proper to Atoms, but to Compounds, and arifing partly out of the Adjunds, partly the Accidents of Atomsj of which we fhall fpeak hereafter. {b) Lucret.2. This in brief , at prefent ^ ) If Colour
( for example ) were in the Atoms themfelves, it would be as intranfmutable as they are ; and fo the things confifting of Atoms , that are of one Colour could not change that, and appear under another, whereas we obferve the con¬ trary happens^ for the Sea foaming looks white, it being othervvife of a green Colour , which doubtlefs if it were in it by reafon of green Atoms,c For whereas fome fay. That Contraries are made of Contraries, it is fo far from being fo, that White will fooner be produced out of no Colour at all,than out of Black. Better they, who conceive the matter of things, that it may un¬ dergo variety of Colours and other Qiialities, ought to be void of them •, as we chufe that Oil which ismoft free from any feent to make Per¬ fumes of.
But to touch a little every property of the Atoms : Whereas in the firft place 1 attribute magnitude to them, I mean not any magnitude • lor the largeft Atom is not fo great as to be per¬ ceptible by fight, but that magnitude which, al¬ though it be below the reach of Sen fc, yet is of fome bignefs,( for if Atoms were points void of all magnitude, no body of any magnitude could be made up of them. ) Whence 1 ufe to fay of an Atom, that it is fome fmall thing, thereby, as it were, not excluding all magnitude from it, but the larger fize only.
(c) Lucret ( c ) Neither can it be objeded. That the magnitude of Atoms is not perceived by the Senfes, fince we muft necelfirily confefs, there are innumerable things invifible i^for can we fee the Wind, Heat, Cold, Odor, Sound, or the lit¬ tle Bodies, by whofe arrival to the Senfe thefe are perceived ? Can we fee the little Bodies of
n^ifture, by which G irments bujig by the War ter- fide are moiilned, yet, being fpread abi‘oa4 are dried ? Can we fee thofe which aye rubb’d oft' from a Long Ring- worm, from a Wheel cha; turns round, from a Plough-fhare in ploughing, from a Stone which a drop hollows, which' a Tread diminilheth, or thofe by which a Plant or Animal grows in its youth , decays in its old age> and the like ? .
^ ^ ‘ Yet we muft not think that all Atonic , ^ x
‘ are of the fame magnitude, it is moreconfo- ‘ nant to Reafon , that atnongft them there be ‘fome greater, others. lefTei: 5 and, this admit- ‘ ted, a Reafon may be given of moft things that ‘ happen abo«t the paflions of the mind , and ‘ about thefenfes,
( e ) That there may be an incomprehcnfible C « J variety ofMagnitudes beyond the reach of Senfe, may alfo be underftood even from this , foraf- much as there are fome little Animals, whofe third par!, if we imagine them divided,would be invifible •, neverthelefs, to the compofition of them an incomprehcnfible number of parts is ne- ceffary. For how many muft there ^ to make the Entrails, the Eyes, the Joints, the Soul *, to conftitute all parts, without which we cannot underftand there fhould be any living, fenfitive^ moving Animal ?
Whether may not ( to ufe a grofs Example,) this variety be comprehended from thofe. duft| motes which the beams of the Sun, coming in at a Window, difeover ? For whereas without fuch beams all thii^gs are alike dark, yet they coming . in, there appeared! an innumerable company of little bodies, in fuch manner, as that there Js an evident difference between the greater and theleffer ; neverthelefs, I fay not,( as fomepon- ceive) that thefe kinds of litle Bodies are A- toms, for in the le^ft of them are contained ma¬ ny Myiiads of Atoms^I only ufe them by way of comparifon. that whereas the whole Nation ( as in were, j of Atoms is impervious, and dark' even to the fliarpeft fight jyet we may underftand it to be fo illu.ftrated by the beams of Reafon, that the Atoms may be perfeclly feen by the mind, and that we nlay conceive there are feve- ral degrees of magnitudes in them.
( / ) Hence it happens , that as in a great (/ ) Lao^ and meafurable magnitude we take fomthing, which,that it may be the common meafure, muft have the proportion of the leaft, as a Foot, a Di¬ git, a Barly-corn *, and in fenfible magnitude. we '
take alfo fomthing which ‘is accounted the leaft as to Senfe,as the little Creature called > fo in intelligible magnitude,fuclras is that of the Atom, we may take fomthing which in it is efteemed ( as it were, ) the leaft' fuch as in an Atom may be conceived, the very point in which a fharp angle is terminated.
( ^ ) But this difference there is between the (.& ) leaft, under the notion of meafure, and the leaft of thofe which are fenfible and intelligible, that the former, by its repetition, maybe underftood to be adaequated to the whole magnitude ; but thefe later are conceiv’d ascertain individual points, which either are bounds of magnitudes, or certain Connexures (as it were, ) fo inter¬ pos’d between the parts, as that they have only cei tain refpecls to the parts conne.fted on each fide, though they arc fuch, that a beginning of
meil-