Volume 1

Rohault's System of natural philosophy / illustrated with Dr. Samuel Clarke's notes taken mostly out of Sir Isaac Newton's philosophy. With additions [by R. Laughton and C. Morgan]. Done into English by John Clarke.

  • Jacques Rohault
Date:
1723
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Rohault's System of natural philosophy / illustrated with Dr. Samuel Clarke's notes taken mostly out of Sir Isaac Newton's philosophy. With additions [by R. Laughton and C. Morgan]. Done into English by John Clarke. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    11. Laftly, We cannot affirm, that a Veffel filled with n • 'That tW.‘A Lead 1 contains more Matter than if it were filled with Wax, though it be heavier ,• for Heavinefs is not effential to Matter, but only Excenfion, which we fuppofe to be °f-Matter. equal in them both. 12. That Notion alone which we have eftabliffied con- 12. That tht cerning the Efifence of Matter, has been the only Princi- P]vrfffticS ^ pie we have made ufe of, to anfwer all the foregoing Que- makcVSif- ftions with fo much Eafe j whence there is Room to be- c0vcry of m*- lieve, that we may with the fame Eafe give afatisfaefiory nfr°!fsT Anfwer to many more, if we reafon in the fame manner about any of its Properties: The firft that offers it felf is X) ivifibility) which is the more copious, becaufe all its Va¬ riety of figures depend upon it. r. Contains more Matter, &cci) This come to difeourfe of the Nature is ab'olutely falfe, as thall be fully Gravity, ciemoniirated afterwards, when we CHAP. IX. Of the Divijibility of Matter. T A J HEN we confider a determinate Portion of Mat- 1 • That Mat- V \ ter without Prejudice, and compare it with other Portions of Matter with which it is encompaffed, we ea- fily conceive that its particular Exigence is wholly inde¬ pendent of thofe that are near it, and that it does not ceafe to be what it is, by being joined or united to other Portions of Matter} the find: Portion of Matter there¬ fore is feparable from thofe with which it is united, and this ffiows the Divisibility of Matter j and the Poffibility of having its Parts divided into ftill leffer Particles. 2. Indeed, when we confider the Power of God, and 2- p/ Epics- his abfolute Dominion over all Things that are in the ^ndthffhl? World, we cannot doubt, but that he is able to make are really 46- certain Parts of Matter of fuch a N ature, that there is no Being in the Univerfe capable of dividing them ,* whence it would follow, that thefe Parts would not at all differ from thofe little Bodies, which Fpic.ru calls Atoms: But this Property of not being capable of being divided by any external Being, is arbitrary, and not built upon any na¬ tural Principle, but only upon a mere Supposition, which does not alter their real Nature j and therefore we may, aotwithflanding this, hold, it for certain, that all Matter is