THIS machine acts, and performs all the œconomical operations of nature, by this one fimple process, namely, by the groffer air or fpirit being preffed in from the circum ference "eafily impelled forward through the intermediate air, "(namely, through the returning fpirit), the following ❝urging or preffing on the part that went before: for " one beam of light is instantly supplied by another, and every ray is by a continued impulfe pufhed on by another "behind." He talks alfo of the fun being fupplied from all parts of the univerfe; which fupplies are collected in his body as into a spring, from whence they flow in ftreams of light and heat: which fhews the broken traditionary veftiges of the facred physics, 1.5. 592. Illud item non eft mirandum, qua ratione Tantulus ille queat tantum fol mittere lumen ; "Nor are we to wonder how it comes to pass, that fo "small a body as the fun," (which he makes no bigger than ference of this fyftem among the finer ether or light about the fun, the centre, and by that means expanding those; and by the finer ether or light being preffed out among the groffer parts, in its way towards the circumference, and by that means expanding thefe; and this action and reaction is mutual and reciprocal, equal and contrary. And this mechanifm is fupported in its vigour, unimpaired or weakened by its continual action, by the grofs air or spirit being fplit into atoms, as it is preffed from the extremity or density towards the central fire; and by the finer ether or light being compreffed into grains, as it is pushed towards the circumference. By means of which re than it appears), is able to emit fo much light as to "spread over the feas, the whole earth and the heavens, "and to cherish all things with its kindly heat: for you may imagine, that, from the fun, one large fountain of light breaks out, and flows abundantly over the whole "world; and that the feeds of fire from all parts of the "universe meet in the body of the fun, and are there col"lected as into a spring or refervoir, from whence the “heat is diffused abroad. Do not you observe how wide ly a fmall fountain of water fpreads its ftream over the "meadows, and overflows the fields?" ciprocation ciprocation of action at the centre and circumference, the parts of the heavens will be always rarer and rarer as you approach the centre, and groffer and groffer as you approach the circumference or verge of this fyftem; whereby this aereal or ethereal medium will suffice to impel bodies from the denfer parts of the medium towards the rarer, with all that force which we call gravity, as Sir Ifaac Newton himself admits in his Optics. And this is that vivifying principle at the fun which he faw was fo neceffary to continue motion in a plenum. And which being admitted, a plenitude of matter, from his own confeffion, is no objection to motion, but the cause of it. For by the grofs parts of the heavens or airs being reduced to atoms by the action of the fun, the centre, and these atoms adhering into grains by the compreffure at the circumference, by à conftant alternacy; the constituent parts of the heavens or air can never be reduced to an equilibrium, and fo become quiefcent; which is made an objection by Sir Ifaac, and that a just one, to the Cartefian vortices. For the mecha nism of the heavens is fo nicely adjusted, that the very effort they make towards an equilibrium, is the cause of a perpetual motion for the grofs parts or grains of air being preffed among the finer, in order to reftore an equilibrium, are by the preffure of those behind pushed into the fun, and there reduced to atoms, and iffued out thence by the continual influx of the maffes or grains of air; and this keeps up the action of fire at the centre. And the atoms thus iffued out from the fun, are pushed by fucceeding ones towards the circumference, to restore an equilibrium there, and in their way are reformed into grains or maffes. And as this fyftem is full, and bounded at the extremity, the atoms, thus formed into maffes or grains, must push out other masses or grains from the circumference towards the fun and fo there will be a continual efflux of atoms, finer air, or light, in every direction from the fun, the centre; and a continual influx of groffer air, maffes, grains, or fpirit, from the circumference. I fhall in the next chapter apply these principles to explain the motion of the earth. CHA P. CHA P. II. Of the agents that move the earth. HE Newtonians, in order to account TH for the motion of the earth round the fun, have nothing to do but to suppose a projection given in a right line, (when or how, they do not tell us), and attraction, or a vis centripeta, to draw it continually from that right line of its firft projection, into an orbicular one. But the giving names to the effects of the air's agency upon matter, fuch as gravity and attraction, and the like; and then affigning these names as the agents, (for to say the fun attracts the earth, &c. is to make attraction an agent), is by no means, I think, philofophical: and the folving phenomena by these terms, is, in my humble opinion, rather veiling than unveiling nature. Illud ergo proprie quæritur, (fays Cardan), an motus aliquis inveniri queat, qui, citra novam generationem, caufam in fe contineat fuæ continuitatis? |